Notice of Funds Availability (NOFA) Inviting Applications for the Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 Funding Round of the Capital Magnet Fund (CMF), 32443-32458 [2020-11580]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY
Community Development Financial
Institutions Fund
Notice of Funds Availability (NOFA)
Inviting Applications for the Fiscal
Year (FY) 2020 Funding Round of the
Capital Magnet Fund (CMF)
Announcement Type: Announcement
of funding opportunity.
Funding Opportunity Number: CDFI–
2020–CMF.
Catalog of Federal Domestic
Assistance (CFDA) Number: 21.011.
Dates:
Funding Opportunities: Capital
Magnet Fund; 2020 Funding Round.
Funding Opportunity Title: Notice of
Funds Availability (NOFA) inviting
Applications for the fiscal year (FY)
2020 Funding Round of the Capital
Magnet Fund (CMF).
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TABLE 1—FY 2020 CAPITAL MAGNET FUND FUNDING ROUND CRITICAL DEADLINES FOR APPLICANTS
Description
Deadline
Time
(eastern time—ET)
OMB Standard Form (SF)–424 Mandatory
form.
Create AMIS Account (if Applicant doesn’t
have one).
Last day to contact Capital Magnet Fund Staff
June 26, 2020 ...........
11:59 p.m. ET ...........
Electronically via Grants.gov.
July 2, 2020 ...............
11:59 p.m. ET ...........
July 23, 2020 .............
5:00 p.m. ET .............
CMF Application and Required Attachments ...
July 27, 2020 .............
5:00 p.m. ET .............
Electronically via Awards Management Information System (AMIS).
Service Request via AMIS or CDFI Fund
Helpdesk:
202–653–0421
or
cmf@
cdfi.treas.gov.
Electronically via AMIS.
Executive Summary: The Capital
Magnet Fund (CMF) is administered by
the Community Development Financial
Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund). Through
the CMF, the CDFI Fund provides
financial assistance grants to
Community Development Financial
Institutions (CDFIs) and to qualified
Nonprofit Organizations that have the
development or management of
affordable housing as one of their
principal purposes. All awards provided
through this Notice of Funds
Availability (NOFA) are subject to
funding availability.
Housing Enterprises Financial Safety
and Soundness Act of 1992. For a
complete understanding of the program,
the CDFI Fund encourages Applicants to
review the CMF interim rule (12 CFR
part 1807) as amended February 8, 2016
(the CMF Interim Rule); this NOFA; the
CDFI Fund’s environmental quality
regulation (12 CFR part 1815); the CMF
funding application (referred to
hereafter as the ‘‘Application,’’ meaning
the application submitted in response to
this NOFA); and the Uniform
Administrative Requirements, Cost
Principles, and Audit Requirements for
Federal Awards (2 CFR part 1000),
which is the Department of the
Treasury’s codification of the Office of
Management and Budget (OMB)
government-wide framework for grants
management at 2 CFR part 200 (Uniform
Administrative Requirements or UAR).
Each capitalized term used in this
NOFA, but not defined herein, shall
have the respective meanings assigned
to them in the CMF Interim Rule, the
Application, or the Uniform
Administrative Requirements. Details
regarding Application content
requirements are found in the
Application and related materials at
www.cdfifund.gov/cmf.
B. History: The CDFI Fund was
established by the Riegle Community
Development Banking and Financial
Institutions Act of 1994 to promote
economic revitalization and community
development through investment in and
assistance to CDFIs. The CMF made its
first awards in FY 2010, with
subsequent funding rounds in FYs 2016,
2017, 2018, and 2019. To date, more
I. Program Description
A. Authorizing Statute and
Regulation: The CMF was established
through the Housing and Economic
Recovery Act of 2008 (HERA), which
added section 1339 to the Federal
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than $564 million has been awarded
under the CMF Program.
C. Uniform Administrative
Requirements, Cost Principles, and
Audit Requirements for Federal Awards
(2 CFR Part 1000): The Uniform
Administrative Requirements codify
financial, administrative, procurement,
and program management standards
that Federal award-making agencies
must follow. Per the Uniform
Administrative Requirements, when
evaluating award Applications,
awarding agencies must evaluate the
risks to the program posed by each
Applicant, and each Applicant’s merits
and eligibility. These requirements are
designed to ensure that Applicants for
Federal assistance receive a fair and
consistent review prior to an award
decision. This review will assess items
such as the Applicant’s financial
stability, quality of management
systems, history of performance, and
single audit findings. In addition, the
Uniform Administrative Requirements
include guidance on audit requirements
and other award compliance
requirements for award Recipients.
D. Priorities: The purpose of the CMF
is to attract private capital for and
increase investment in the
Development, Preservation,
Rehabilitation, or Purchase of
Affordable Housing for primarily
Extremely Low-Income, Very LowIncome, and Low-Income Families, as
well as Economic Development
Activities, which, In Conjunction With
Affordable Housing Activities,
implement a Concerted Strategy to
stabilize or revitalize a Low-Income
Area or Underserved Rural Area. To
pursue these objectives, the CDFI Fund
has established the following priorities
for the FY 2020 Funding Round: (i)
Applications where at least 20 percent
of all rental Affordable Housing units
that will be financed and/or supported
with FY 2020 CMF Awards are targeted
to Very Low-Income Families and/or at
least 20 percent of all Homeownership
Affordable Housing units that will be
financed and/or supported with FY
2020 CMF Awards are targeted to LowIncome Families; and (ii) Applications
proposing to use the CMF Award to
leverage private capital to finance and/
or support Affordable Housing
Activities and Economic Development
Activities. Additionally, the CDFI Fund
seeks to fund Applications serving
geographically diverse Areas of
Economic Distress, including
Metropolitan Areas and Underserved
Rural Areas. In particular, the priority
for geographic diversity includes
funding highly qualified Applications
that serve states or territories not
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included in the Service Areas of
Recipients in the past two CMF rounds
(FY 2018 and FY 2019): Alaska, North
Dakota, and South Carolina, as well as
American Samoa, Guam, the Northern
Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin
Islands.
E. Funding Limitations: The CDFI
Fund reserves the right to fund, in
whole or in part, any, all, or none of the
Applications submitted in response to
this NOFA.
II. Federal Award Information
A. Funding Availability: The CDFI
Fund plans to award up to $173.8
million in grants for the CMF FY 2020
Round under this NOFA. HERA
prohibits the CDFI Fund from obligating
more than 15 percent of the aggregate
available in CMF Awards to any
Applicant, its Subsidiaries and
Affiliates in the same funding round.
Affiliated entities are not allowed to
apply separately under this NOFA. To
provide an example of the size of
awards in past CMF rounds, the CDFI
Fund notes that in the FY 2019 CMF
Round, the statutory cap was $19.6
million, but the largest amount awarded
was $7.75 million, while the average
award was approximately $3.4 million.
Moreover, given administrative and
compliance responsibilities for
Recipients, the CDFI Fund will not
accept Applications for the FY 2020
Round that request less than $500,000,
and will not provide awards below
$500,000 to any CMF Award Recipient
for the FY 2020 CMF Round. The CDFI
Fund reserves the right, in its sole
discretion, to provide a CMF Award in
an amount other than that which the
Applicant requests. However, the
Award amount will not exceed the
Applicant’s award request as stated in
its Application, nor will the Award
amount be less than the Applicant’s
minimum Award request, if one is
provided in the Application. An
Applicant may receive only one Award
through the FY 2020 CMF Round.
B. Types of Awards: The CDFI Fund
will provide CMF Awards in the form
of grants. CMF Awards must be used to
support the eligible activities as set forth
in 12 CFR 1807.301. A CMF Award
Recipient may not distribute the CMF
Award to any Affiliate, Subsidiary, or
third-party entity in any manner that
would create a Subrecipient
relationship (as defined in the Uniform
Administrative Requirements), without
the CDFI Fund’s prior written consent.
The Recipient of a CMF Award must
retain all obligations related to the
Award. This restriction does not prevent
a Recipient from loaning or investing
directly in an Affiliate (separate legal
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entity) or in a specific Project being
undertaken by an Affiliate.
C. Limitations on Using CMF Awards
in Conjunction With Other CDFI Fund
Awards/Allocations: 1. A CMF Award
Recipient may not use its CMF Award
for any project that also receives
funding from other CDFI Fund program
awards or allocations the Recipient (or
any of its Affiliates) has received, except
when the CMF Award dollars are used
to finance/support a different ‘‘phase’’
of development in the same Project than
that financed by other CDFI Fund
awards or allocations. The separate
phases of development financing are: (1)
Predevelopment; (2) acquisition; (3) site
work (preconstruction); (4)
construction/rehabilitation; (5)
permanent financing; or (6) bridge
financing between two or more phases.
This restriction does not apply to the
Recipient’s prior CMF Awards. The
Recipient may combine its multiple
CMF Awards to provide financing on
any Project, including financing the
same phase of any Project. However, the
Recipient may not deem the same costs
as Eligible Project Costs under multiple
CMF Awards and must prorate the unit
production performance across its
multiple CMF Awards. If providing
Homeownership assistance, a CMF
Award may be used in conjunction with
awards/allocations from other CDFI
Fund programs only if the Project can be
divided into such phases and the CMF
Award is used in a different phase from
the other CDFI Fund program awards/
allocations. To clarify, a CMF Award
cannot be used for a Homeownership
property that is permanently financed
(or supported) by both, the Recipient’s
(or any of its Affiliates’) CMF Award,
and an award/allocation from another
CDFI Fund program (e.g., down
payment assistance funded from CMF
Award may not be combined with a
permanent mortgage funded from
another CDFI Fund program).
2. Costs financed and/or supported by
the Recipient’s other awards/allocations
from CDFI Fund programs, including
awards from prior CMF rounds, may not
be counted or reported as Leveraged
Costs for the CMF Award pursuant to
this NOFA, as further set forth in the
Assistance Agreement. While the
Recipient may combine its CMF Award
pursuant to this NOFA with prior issued
CMF Awards to finance/support the
same Project, each CMF Award must
separately meet the program
requirements as outlined in the
applicable Assistance Agreement and
the CMF Interim Rule (12 CFR part
1807). The term ‘‘Recipient’’ includes
the CMF Award Recipient and any
Affiliates.
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In all cases, the CMF Award remains
subject to the following restriction
imposed by the CDFI Bond Guarantee
Program: Award funds received under
any CDFI Fund program cannot be used
by any participant of the CDFI Bond
Guarantee Program, including Qualified
Issuers, Eligible CDFIs, and Secondary
Borrowers, to pay principal, interest,
fees, administrative costs, or issuance
costs (including Bond Issuance Fees)
related to the CDFI Bond Guarantee
Program, or to fund the Risk Share Pool
for a Bond Issue (all capitalized terms
used in this sentence, other than ‘‘CMF
Award,’’ shall have the meanings
ascribed to them in the CDFI Bond
Guarantee Program regulations and
applicable guidance).
D. Anticipated Start Date and Period
of Performance: The CDFI Fund
anticipates the period of performance
for the FY 2020 CMF Round to begin in
early 2021. The period of performance
for each CMF Award begins with the
date that the CDFI Fund announces the
Recipients of FY 2020 CMF Awards and
continues until the end of the ten-year
period of affordability for all Projects
financed and/or supported with the
CMF Award, as set forth at 12 CFR
1807.401(d) and 12 CFR 1807.402, and
as further set forth in the Assistance
Agreement, during which time the
Recipient must meet certain
Performance Goals.
E. Eligible Activities: A CMF Award
must support or finance activities that
attract private capital for and increase
investment in (i) the Development,
Preservation, Rehabilitation, or
Purchase of Affordable Housing for
primarily Low-, Very Low- and
Extremely Low-Income Families, and
(ii) Economic Development Activities.
CMF Awards may only be used as
follows: (i) To provide Loan Loss
Reserves, (ii) to capitalize a Revolving
Loan Fund, (iii) to capitalize an
Affordable Housing Fund, (iv) to
capitalize a fund to support Economic
Development Activities, (v) for RiskSharing Loans, or (vi) to provide Loan
Guarantees. No more than 30 percent of
a CMF Award may be used for
Economic Development Activities. For
the FY 2020 CMF Round, the CDFI
Fund will allow all Recipients to use up
to 5 percent of their CMF Award for
Direct Administrative Expenses. The
amount available for Direct
Administrative Expenses may only be
32445
used for direct costs (as defined by the
Uniform Administrative Requirements)
incurred by the Recipient and related to
the financing and/or support of a
Project. The CDFI Fund considers the
tracking of impacts and outcomes
associated with Projects financed and/or
supported by a CMF Award to fall under
Direct Administrative Expenses. Any
portion of the amount available for
Direct Administrative Expenses may be
used for direct costs related to the
effective tracking and evaluation of
program or evidence-based outcomes for
Projects.
III. Eligibility Information
A. Eligible Applicants: In order to be
eligible to apply for a CMF Award, an
Applicant must either be a Certified
CDFI or a Nonprofit Organization, as
defined in 12 CFR 1807.104. Table 2
indicates the criteria that each entity
type must meet in order to be eligible
for a CMF Award pursuant to this
NOFA. Note: A Certified CDFI that is
also a Nonprofit Organization only
needs to meet the Certified CDFI
eligibility criteria described in Table 2,
below, in order to be eligible for a CMF
Award.
TABLE 2—APPLICANT ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS
Category
Eligibility requirements
Certified CDFI ......................................................
• Has been in existence as a legally formed entity for at least 3 years prior to the AMIS Application deadline under this NOFA;
• Has been determined by the CDFI Fund to meet the CDFI certification requirements set
forth in 12 CFR 1805.201 and as verified in the CDFI’s AMIS account as of the publication
date of this NOFA; and
• Has not been notified in writing by the CDFI Fund that its certification has been terminated.
• In cases where the CDFI Fund has provided a Certified CDFI with written notification that it
no longer meets one or more certification standards and has been given an opportunity to
cure, the CDFI Fund will continue to consider this Applicant to be a Certified CDFI until it
has received a final determination letter that its certification has been terminated.
• Has audited financial statements encompassing its two most recently completed fiscal years
prior to the publication date of this NOFA.
• Has been in existence as a legally formed entity for at least 3 years prior to the AMIS Application deadline under this NOFA;
• Meets the definition of Nonprofit Organization set forth in 12 CFR 1807.104.
• Demonstrates, through articles of incorporation, by-laws, or other board-approved documents, that the development or management of affordable housing are among its principal
purposes; and
• Demonstrates by providing an attestation in the Application that at least thirty-three and
one-third percent of its total assets are dedicated to the development or management of affordable housing.
• Has audited financial statements encompassing its two most recently completed fiscal years
prior to the publication date of this NOFA.
• The Do Not Pay Business Center was developed to support Federal agencies in their efforts to reduce the number of improper payments made through programs funded by the
Federal government.
• The CDFI Fund reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to rescind an award if the Recipient
is identified as an ineligible Recipient in the Do Not Pay database.
• Each Applicant must have an active SAM registration in order to submit the required Application materials through Grants.gov.
• SAM is a web-based, government-wide application that collects, validates, stores, and disseminates business information about the federal government’s trading partners in support
of the contract awards, grants, and electronic payment processes. See SAM.gov for more
information.
• Applicants must have a login.gov account to sign into SAM. Applicants must also have a
DUNS number and an EIN in order to register in SAM.
Nonprofit Organization ........................................
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Do Not Pay ..........................................................
System for Award Management (SAM) ..............
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TABLE 2—APPLICANT ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS—Continued
Category
Eligibility requirements
Application type and submission method
through Grants.gov and Awards Management
Information System (AMIS).
Employer Identification Number (EIN) ................
DUNS number .....................................................
AMIS Account .....................................................
501(c)(4) status ...................................................
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Compliance with Nondiscrimination and Equal
Opportunity Statutes, Regulations, and Executive Orders.
Depository Institution Holding Company Applicant.
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• Applicants must complete registration in SAM in order to be able to complete the
Grants.gov registration and submit an SF–424.
• The CDFI Fund reserves the right to deem an Application ineligible if the Applicant’s SAM
account expires during the Application evaluation period, or is set to expire before March 1,
2021, and the Applicant does not re-activate, or renew, as applicable, the account within the
deadlines that the CDFI Fund communicates to affected Applicants during the Application
evaluation period.
• Each Applicant must submit the required Application documents listed in Table 4.
• The CDFI Fund will only accept Applications that use the official Application templates provided on the Grants.gov and AMIS websites. Applications submitted with alternative or altered templates will not be considered.
• All Applicants must submit the required documents in two locations: (1) Grants.gov and (2)
AMIS.
Æ Grants.gov: Applicants must submit the Office of Management and Budget (OMB)-approved Standard Form (SF) 424 Mandatory (Application for Federal Assistance) form.
Æ AMIS: Applicants must submit all other required Application materials.
Æ All Applicants must register in the Grants.gov and AMIS systems to submit an Application successfully. The CDFI Fund strongly encourages Applicants to register as early as
possible to meet the deadlines in Table 1.
Æ Grants.gov and the SF–424 Mandatory form:
Æ Grants.gov is a common website for federal agencies to post discretionary funding opportunities and for grantees to find and apply to them.
Æ The SF–424 must be submitted in Grants.gov before the other Application materials
are submitted in AMIS. Applicants are strongly encouraged to submit their SF–424 as
early as possible via the Grants.gov portal.
Æ Because the SF–424 is part of the Application, if the SF–424 is not accepted by
Grants.gov, the CDFI Fund will not review any materials submitted in AMIS and the Application will be deemed ineligible.
Æ The SF–424 must be submitted under the FY 2020 CMF Funding Opportunity Number.
• AMIS:
Æ AMIS is the CDFI Fund’s enterprise-wide information technology system that will be
used to submit and store organization and Application information with the CDFI Fund.
Æ Applicants are only allowed one Capital Magnet Fund Application submission per funding round in AMIS.
• Each Applicant must have a unique EIN assigned by the Internal Revenue Service.
• The CDFI Fund will reject an Application submitted with the EIN of a parent or Affiliate organization if that entity is not the Applicant.
• The EIN of the Applicant organization in AMIS must match the EIN on the SF–424 submitted through Grants.gov.
• Pursuant to OMB guidance (68 FR 38402), each Applicant must apply using its unique
DUNS number in Grants.gov.
• The CDFI Fund will reject an Application submitted with the DUNS number of a parent or
Affiliate organization.
• The DUNS number of the Applicant in AMIS must match the DUNS number on the SF–424
submitted through Grants.gov.
• Each Applicant must register as an organization in AMIS and submit all required Application
materials through the AMIS portal.
• If the Applicant does not fully register its organization in AMIS by the deadline set forth in
Table 1, its Application will be rejected without further consideration.
• The Authorized Representative must be included as a ‘‘user’’ in the Applicant’s AMIS account.
• An Applicant that fails to properly register and update its AMIS account may miss important
communications from the CDFI Fund or not be able to successfully submit an Application.
• Pursuant to 2 U.S.C. 1611, any 501(c)(4) organization that engages in lobbying activities is
not eligible to apply for or receive a CMF Award.
• An Applicant may not be eligible to receive an award if proceedings have been instituted
against it in, by, or before any court, governmental agency, or administrative body, and a
final determination, issued within the last 3 years as of the publication date of this NOFA, indicates the Applicant has violated any of the following laws: Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of
1964, as amended (42 U.S.C. 2000d); Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (29
U.S.C. 794); the Age Discrimination Act of 1975 (42 U.S.C. 6101–6107); Title VIII of the
Civil Rights Act of 1968, as amended (42 U.S.C. 3601 et seq.); and Executive Order 13166,
Improving Access to Services for Persons with Limited English Proficiency.
• In the case where a CDFI Depository Institution Holding Company Applicant intends to carry
out the activities of its award through its Subsidiary CDFI Insured Depository Institution, the
Application must be submitted by the CDFI Depository Institution Holding Company and reflect the activities and financial performance of the Subsidiary CDFI Insured Depository Institution.
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TABLE 2—APPLICANT ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS—Continued
Category
Eligibility requirements
Regulated Institutions 1 ........................................
• The Authorized Representative of the Depository Institution Holding Company Applicant
must certify that the information included in the Application represents that of the Subsidiary
CDFI Insured Depository Institution, and that the Award will be used to support the Subsidiary CDFI Insured Depository Institution for the eligible activities outlined in the Application.
• To be eligible for an Award, each Regulated Institution Applicant must have a CAMELS/
CAMEL composite rating (rating for banks and credit unions, respectively), by its Federal
regulator of at least ‘‘3.’’
• Organizations with CAMELS/CAMEL composite ratings of ‘‘4’’ or ‘‘5’’ will not be eligible for
awards.
• Organizations with a Prompt Corrective Action directive from its regulator will not be eligible
for awards.
• The CDFI Fund will also evaluate material concerns identified by the Appropriate Federal
Banking Agency in determining eligibility of Regulated Institution Applicants.
1 Regulated Institutions include Insured Credit Unions, Insured Depository Institutions, State-Insured Credit Unions and Depository Institution
Holding Companies.
Any Applicant that does not meet the
criteria in Table 2 is ineligible to apply
for a CMF Award under this NOFA.
Further, Section III.B describes
additional considerations applicable to
prior Recipients and/or allocatees under
any CDFI Fund program.
B. Prior Award Recipients: Eligibility
determinations in prior funding rounds
have no bearing on and do not guarantee
eligibility in this round. Prior CMF
Award Recipients and prior award
recipients of other CDFI Fund programs
are eligible to apply under this NOFA,
except as noted in Table 3.
TABLE 3—ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS FOR APPLICANTS WHICH ARE PRIOR AWARD/ALLOCATION RECIPIENTS
Criteria
Description
Pending resolution of noncompliance .................
• If an Applicant (or Affiliate of an Applicant) that is a prior recipient or allocatee under any
CDFI Fund program: (i) Has demonstrated it has been in noncompliance with a previous assistance agreement, award agreement, allocation agreement, bond loan agreement, or
agreement to guarantee and (ii) the CDFI Fund has yet to make a final determination as to
whether the entity is in noncompliance with or default of its previous agreement, the CDFI
Fund will consider the Applicant’s Application under this NOFA pending full resolution, in the
sole determination of the CDFI Fund, of the noncompliance.
• The CDFI Fund will not consider an Application submitted by an Applicant that is a prior
CDFI Fund award recipient or allocatee under any CDFI Fund program if, as of the AMIS
Application deadline of this NOFA, the CDFI Fund has made a final determination in writing
that such Applicant (or Affiliate of such Applicant) is in noncompliance with or default of a
previously executed assistance agreement, award agreement, allocation agreement, bond
loan agreement, or agreement to guarantee.
• Such entities will be ineligible to apply for an Award pursuant to this NOFA if the CDFI Fund
has provided written notification that such entity is ineligible to apply for or receive any future CDFI Fund awards or allocations. Such entities will be ineligible to submit an application for such time period as specified by the CDFI Fund in writing.
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Default or Noncompliance status ........................
C. Contacting the CDFI Fund:
Accordingly, Applicants that are prior
Recipients and/or allocatees under any
CDFI Fund program are advised to
comply with requirements specified in
an Assistance Agreement, allocation
agreement, bond loan agreement, or
agreement to guarantee, and to ensure
their Affiliates are in compliance with
any agreements. All outstanding
reporting and compliance questions
should be directed to the Office of
Certification, Compliance Monitoring
and Evaluation help desk by AMIS
Service Requests or by telephone at
(202) 653–0421; except in the case of
Capital Magnet Fund reporting and
compliance questions, which should be
directed to the Capital Magnet Fund
help desk by completing a Service
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Request through AMIS using ‘‘Capital
Magnet Fund’’ for the Service Request
program. Alternatively, the public can
contact Capital Magnet Fund staff via
email at CMF@cdfi.treas.gov. The CDFI
Fund will not respond to Applicants’
reporting, compliance, or disbursement
telephone calls or email inquiries that
are received after 5:00 p.m. ET on July
23, 2020 until after the Application
deadline. The CDFI Fund will respond
to technical issues related to AMIS
Accounts through 5:00 p.m. ET on July
27, 2020, via AMIS Service Requests, or
at AMIS@cdfi.treas.gov, or by telephone
at (202) 653–0422.
D. Cost sharing or matching funds
requirements: Not applicable.
E. Other Eligibility Criteria:
1. How Affiliated Entities Can Submit
an Application: As part of the
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Application review process, the CDFI
Fund considers whether Applicants are
Affiliates, as such term is defined in 12
CFR1807.104. If an Applicant and its
Affiliate(s) wish to submit an
Application, they must do so through
one of the Affiliated entities, in one
Application; an Applicant and its
Affiliates may not submit separate
Applications. If Affiliates submit
multiple or separate Applications, the
CDFI Fund may, at its discretion, reject
all such Applications received or select
only one of the submitted Applications
to deem eligible, assuming that
Application meets all other eligibility
criteria in Section III of this NOFA.
Furthermore, an Applicant that
receives an award in this CMF round
may not become an Affiliate of another
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Applicant that receives an award in this
CMF round at any time after the
submission of a CMF Application under
this NOFA. This requirement will also
be a term and condition of the
Assistance Agreement (see Application
Frequently Asked Questions on the
CDFI Fund’s website at https://
www.cdfifund.gov/cmf for more details).
2. An Applicant will not be eligible to
receive a CMF Award if the Applicant
fails to demonstrate in the Application
that its CMF Award would result in
Eligible Project Costs (Leveraged Costs
plus those costs funded by the CMF
Award) that equal at least 10 times the
amount of the CMF Award. Note that no
costs attributable to Direct
Administrative Expenses may be
considered Eligible Project Costs.
IV. Application and Submission
Information
A. Address To Request Application
Package: Application materials can be
found on the Grants.gov and the CDFI
Fund’s website at www.cdfifund.gov/
cmf. Applicants may request a paper
version of any Application material by
contacting the CDFI Fund Help Desk by
email at cmf@cdfi.treas.gov or by phone
at (202) 653–0421.
B. Content and Form of Application
Submission: The CDFI Fund will post to
its website, at www.cdfifund.gov/cmf,
instructions for accessing and
submitting an Application. Detailed
Application content requirements are
found in the Application and related
guidance documents. All Applications
must be prepared in English and
calculations must be made in U.S.
dollars. Table 4 lists the required
funding Application documents for the
FY 2020 CMF Round. Applicants must
submit all required documents for the
Application to be deemed complete.
Please be aware that an Applicant that
fails to submit audited financial
statements for its two most recently
completed fiscal years will be deemed
as not having a complete Application
and will be considered ineligible. The
CDFI Fund reserves the right to request
and review other pertinent or public
information that has not been
specifically requested in this NOFA or
the Application. Information submitted
by the Applicant that the CDFI Fund has
not specifically requested will not be
reviewed or considered as part of the
Application. Information submitted
must accurately reflect the Applicant’s
activities and/or its Subsidiary Insured
Depository Institution, in the case where
the Applicant is an Insured Depository
Institution Holding Company.
TABLE 4—FUNDING APPLICATION DOCUMENTS
Application document
Submission format
Required?
Standard Form (SF) 424 Mandatory Form ....................................................................
CMF Application ............................................................................................................
Fillable PDF in Grants.gov
AMIS ...................................
Required for all Applicants.
Required for all Applicants.
Attachments to the Application
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Audited financial statements (most recent 2 fiscal years) ............................................
Any management letters related to the audited financial statements (most recent 2
fiscal years).
State Charter, Articles of Incorporation, or other establishing documents designating
that the Applicant is a nonprofit or not-for-profit entity under the laws of the organization’s State of formation.
A certification demonstrating tax exempt status from the IRS. For Applicants that are
governmental instrumentalities only, and as long as all other eligibility requirements are met, the Applicant must submit a legal opinion from counsel, in form
and substance acceptable to the CDFI Fund, opining that the Applicant is exempt
from Federal income tax, if the Applicant does not otherwise have such determination in a document from the IRS.
Articles of incorporation, by-laws or other documents demonstrating that the Applicant has a principal purpose of managing or developing affordable housing.
The CDFI Fund has a sequential, twostep process that requires the
submission of Application documents
in separate systems and on separate
deadlines. The SF–424 form must be
submitted through Grants.gov and all
other Application documents through
the AMIS portal. The CDFI Fund will
not accept Applications via email, mail,
facsimile, or other forms of
communication, except in extremely
rare circumstances that have been preapproved by the CDFI Fund. The
separate Application deadlines for the
SF–424 and all other Application
materials are listed in Tables 1 and 6.
Only the Authorized Representative for
the Organization or Application Point of
Contact designated in AMIS may submit
the Application through AMIS.
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PDF in AMIS ......................
PDF in AMIS ......................
Required for all Applicants.
Required for all Applicants.
PDF in AMIS ......................
Required only for Applicants that are not Certified CDFIs.
Required only for Applicants that are not Certified CDFIs.
PDF in AMIS ......................
PDF in AMIS ......................
Applicants are strongly encouraged to
submit the SF–424 as early as possible
through Grants.gov in order to provide
sufficient time to resolve any potential
submission issues. Applicants should
contact Grants.gov directly with
questions related to the registration or
submission process, as the CDFI Fund
does not administer the Grants.gov
system.
The CDFI Fund strongly encourages
Applicants to start the Grants.gov
registration process as soon as possible,
as it may take several weeks to complete
(refer to the following link: https://
www.grants.gov/web/grants/
register.html). An Applicant that has
previously registered with Grants.gov
must verify that its registration is
current and active. If an Applicant has
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Required only for Applicants that are not Certified CDFIs.
not previously registered with
Grants.gov, it must first successfully
register in SAM.gov, as described in
Section IV.D below.
C. Dun and Bradstreet Data Universal
Numbering System (DUNS): Pursuant to
the Uniform Administrative
Requirements, each Applicant must
provide as part of its Application
submission a valid Dun & Bradstreet
Data Universal Numbering System
(DUNS) number. Any Applicant without
a DUNS number will not be able to
register in SAM or register and submit
an Application in the Grants.gov
system. Please allow sufficient time for
Dun & Bradstreet to respond to inquiries
and/or requests for DUNS numbers.
D. System for Award Management
(SAM): Any entity applying for Federal
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grants or other forms of Federal
financial assistance through Grants.gov
must be registered in SAM before
submitting its Application materials
through that platform. When accessing
SAM.gov, users will be asked to create
a login.gov user account (if they don’t
already have one). Going forward, users
will use their login.gov username and
password every time when logging into
SAM.gov. The SAM registration process
can take four weeks or longer to
complete so Applicants are strongly
encouraged to begin the registration
process upon publication of this NOFA
in order to avoid potential Application
submission issues. An original, signed
notarized letter identifying the
authorized entity administrator for the
entity associated with the DUNS
number is required by SAM and must be
mailed to the Federal Service Desk. This
requirement is applicable to new
entities registering in SAM, as well as
existing entities with registrations being
updated or renewed in SAM. Applicants
that have previously completed the
SAM registration process must verify
that their SAM accounts are current and
active.
Applicants are required to maintain a
current and active SAM account at all
32449
times during which it has an active
Federal award or an Application under
consideration for an award by a Federal
awarding agency.
The CDFI Fund will not consider any
Applicant that fails to properly register
or activate its SAM account and, as a
result, is unable to submit its
Application by the Application
deadline. Applicants must contact SAM
directly with questions related to
registration or SAM account changes, as
the CDFI Fund does not maintain this
system. For more information about
SAM, please visit https://www.sam.gov
or call 866–606–8220.
TABLE 5—Grants.gov REGISTRATION TIMELINE SUMMARY
Step
Agency
Estimated minimum time to complete
Obtain a DUNS number ....................................
Register in SAM.gov ..........................................
Register in Grants.gov .......................................
Dun & Bradstreet ..............................................
System for Award Management (SAM) ...........
Grants.gov ........................................................
One Week.*
Four Weeks.*
One Week.**
* Applicants are advised that the stated duration are estimates only and represent minimum timeframes. Actual timeframes may take longer.
The CDFI Fund will not consider any Applicant that fails to properly register or activate its SAM account, has not yet received a DUNS number,
and/or fails to properly register in Grants.gov.
** This estimate assumes an Applicant has a DUNS number, an EIN number, and is already registered in SAM.gov.
E. Submission Dates and Times:
1. Submission Deadlines: Table 6 lists
the deadlines for submission of the
documents related to the FY 2020 CMF
Funding Round:
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TABLE 6—FY 2020 CMF DEADLINES FOR APPLICANTS
Document
Deadline
Time—
eastern time
(ET)
SF–424 Mandatory form .....................................................................
Create AMIS Account (if the Applicant does not already have one) ..
CMF Application and Required Attachments ......................................
June 26, 2020 ....
July 2, 2020 .......
July 27, 2020 .....
11:59 p.m. ET ....
11:59 p.m. ET ....
5:00 p.m. ET ......
2. Confirmation of Application
Submission in Grants.gov and AMIS:
Applicants are required to submit the
SF–424 Mandatory Form through the
Grants.gov system under the FY 2020
Capital Magnet Fund Funding
Opportunity Number (listed at the
beginning of this NOFA). All other
required Application materials must be
submitted through the AMIS website.
Application materials submitted
through each system are due by the
applicable deadline listed in Table 6.
Applicants must submit the SF–424 by
an earlier deadline than that of the other
required Application materials in AMIS.
If a valid SF–424 is not submitted
through Grants.gov by the
corresponding deadline, the Applicant
will not be able to submit the additional
Application materials in AMIS, and the
Application will be deemed ineligible.
Thus, Applicants are strongly
encouraged to submit the SF–424 as
early as possible in the Grants.gov
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portal, given that potential submission
issues may impact the ability to submit
a complete Application.
(a) Grants.gov Submission
Information: Each Applicant will
receive an initial email from Grants.gov
immediately after submitting the SF–
424, confirming that the submission has
entered the Grants.gov system. This
email will contain a tracking number for
the submitted SF–424. Within 48 hours,
the Applicant will receive a second
email which will indicate if the
submitted SF–424 was either
successfully validated or rejected with
errors. However, Applicants should not
rely on the email notification from
Grants.gov to confirm that their SF–424
was validated. Applicants are strongly
encouraged to use the tracking number
provided in the first email to closely
monitor the status of their SF–424 by
checking Grants.gov directly. The
Application materials submitted in
AMIS are not accepted by the CDFI
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Submission method
Electronically via Grants.gov.
Electronically via AMIS.
Electronically via AMIS.
Fund until Grants.gov has validated the
SF–424. In the Grants.gov Workspace
function, please note that the
Application package has not been
submitted if you have not received a
tracking number.
(b) AMIS Submission Information:
AMIS is a web-based portal where
Applicants will directly enter their
Application information and add
required attachments listed in Table 4.
Each Applicant must register as an
organization in AMIS in order to submit
the required Application materials
through this portal. AMIS will verify
that the Applicant provided the
minimum information required to
submit an Application. Applicants are
responsible for the quality and accuracy
of the information and attachments
included in the Application submitted
in AMIS. The CDFI Fund strongly
encourages the Applicant to allow
sufficient time to confirm the
Application content, review the material
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submitted, and remedy any issues prior
to the Application deadline. Applicants
can only submit one Application in
AMIS. Upon submission, the
Application will be locked and cannot
be resubmitted, edited, or modified in
any way. The CDFI Fund will not
unlock or allow multiple AMIS
Application submissions.
Prior to submission, each Application
in AMIS must be signed by an
Authorized Representative. An
Authorized Representative is an
employee or officer and has the
authority to legally bind and make
representations on behalf of the
Applicant; consultants working on
behalf of the Applicant cannot be
designated as Authorized
Representatives. The Applicant may
include consultants as Application
point(s) of contact, who will be
included on any communication
regarding the Application and will be
able to submit the Application but
cannot sign the Application. The
Authorized Representative and/or
Application point(s) of contact must be
included as ‘‘Contacts’’ in the
Applicant’s AMIS account. The
Authorized Representative must also be
a ‘‘user’’ in AMIS. An Applicant that
fails to properly register and update its
AMIS account may miss important
communications from the CDFI Fund or
fail to submit an Application
successfully. Only an Authorized
Representative for the organization or an
Application point of contact can submit
the Application in AMIS. After
submitting its Application, the
Applicant will not be permitted to
revise or modify its Application in any
way or attempt to negotiate the terms of
an Award.
3. Multiple Application Submissions:
Applicants are only permitted to submit
one complete Application. However, the
CDFI Fund does not control Grants.gov,
which does allow for multiple
submissions of the SF–424. If an
Applicant submits multiple SF–424
Applications in Grants.gov, the CDFI
Fund will only review the SF–424
Application submitted in Grants.gov
that is attached to the AMIS
Application. Applicants can only
submit one Application through AMIS.
4. Late Submission: The CDFI Fund
will not accept an SF–424 submitted
after the applicable Grants.gov or AMIS
Application submitted after the AMIS
Application deadline, except where the
submission delay was a direct result of
a Federal government administrative or
technological error. This exception
includes any errors associated with
Grants.gov, SAM.gov, AMIS or any other
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applicable government system. Please
note that this exception does not apply
to errors arising from obtaining a DUNS
number from Dun & Bradstreet, which is
not a government entity. An Applicant
unable to make timely submission of its
Application due to any errors in the
process of obtaining a DUNS number
will not be allowed to submit its
Application after the Application
deadline has passed.
(a) SF–424 Late Submission: In cases
where a Federal government
administrative or technological error
directly resulted in the late submission
of the SF–424, the Applicant must
submit a written request for acceptance
of the late SF–424 submission and
include documentation of the error no
later than two business days after the
SF–424 deadline. The CDFI Fund will
not respond to requests for acceptance
of late SF–424 submissions after that
time period. Applicants must submit
late SF–424 submission requests to the
CDFI Fund via an AMIS service request
to the CDFI Program with a subject line
of ‘‘Late SF–424 Submission Request.’’
(b) Application Late Submission: In
cases where a Federal government
administrative or technological error
directly resulted in a late submission of
the Application in AMIS, the Applicant
must submit a written request for
acceptance of the late Application
submission and include documentation
of the error no later than two business
days after the Application deadline. The
CDFI Fund will not respond to requests
for acceptance of late Application
submissions after that time period.
Applicants must submit late
Application submission requests to the
CDFI Fund via an AMIS service request
to the CDFI Program with a subject line
of ‘‘Late Application Submission
Request.’’
5. Intergovernmental Review: Not
Applicable.
6. Funding Restrictions: CMF Awards
are limited by the following:
(a) A Recipient shall use CMF Award
funds only for the eligible activities set
forth in 12 CFR 1807.301 and as
described in Section II.C and Section
II.E of this NOFA and its Assistance
Agreement.
(b) A Recipient may not disburse CMF
Award funds to an Affiliate, Subsidiary,
or any other entity in any manner that
would create a Subrecipient
relationship (as defined in the Uniform
Administrative Requirements) without
the CDFI Fund’s prior written approval.
(c) CMF Award dollars shall only be
paid to the Recipient.
(d) The CDFI Fund, in its sole
discretion, may pay CMF Awards in
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amounts, or under terms and
conditions, which are different from
those requested by an Applicant.
However, the CDFI Fund will not grant
an Award in excess of the amount
requested by the Applicant.
V. Application Review Information
A. Criteria: All complete and eligible
Applications will be reviewed in
accordance with the criteria and
procedures described in the CMF
Interim Rule, this NOFA, the
Application guidance, and the Uniform
Administrative Requirements. As part of
the review process, the CDFI Fund
reserves the right to contact the
Applicant by telephone, email, mail, or
through an on-site visit for the sole
purpose of clarifying or confirming
Application information at any point
during the review process. The CDFI
Fund reserves the right to collect such
additional information from Applicants
as it deems appropriate. If contacted, the
Applicant must respond within the time
period communicated by the CDFI Fund
or its Application may be rejected. For
the sake of clarity, specific Application
evaluation criteria are described in the
context of the overall Application
review and selection process described
in Section V.B. below.
B. Review and Selection Process:
The CDFI Fund will evaluate each
complete and eligible Application using
the multi-phase review process
described in this Section. For the first
two parts of the review process, the
Quantitative Assessment and External
Review, the Applications will be
grouped into two categories: (1)
Financing entities and (2) affordable
housing developers/managers. Certified
CDFIs will automatically be categorized
as financing entities. Nonprofit
Organizations will select whether they
are primarily financing entities or
affordable housing developers/
managers. The Applications of these
two groups will be evaluated on the
criteria listed in this section. Where
appropriate, the CDFI Fund will use
different criteria in order to evaluate the
financial health, capacity, and strategies
of these distinct entity types. These
differences are noted in the following
sections and the Application
Instructions.
1. Quantitative Assessment: Each
complete and eligible Application will
receive a numeric score based on the
responses to quantitative questions in
the Application. Applications may
receive a score of up to 100 points based
on the following factors outlined in
Table 7.
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TABLE 7—QUANTITATIVE ASSESSMENT FACTORS
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Section
Points
Assessment criteria
Business and Leveraging Strategy ........
40
Community Impact .................................
35
Organizational Capacity .........................
25
Within the Business and Leveraging
Strategy Section of the Quantitative
Assessment, an Applicant will generally
score more favorably to the extent it:
Proposes to leverage a higher multiplier
of private capital; and has a volume of
projected activities supported by its
track record. An Applicant will also
score slightly more favorably if it is
proposing to serve Alaska, North
Dakota, South Carolina, American
Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana
Islands, or the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Within the Community Impact
Section, an Applicant will generally
score more favorably to the extent that
it commits to one or more of the
following: Financing and/or supporting
a higher percentage of rental housing
units targeted to Very Low-Income
Families (if proposing to use CMF for
rental housing), and/or financing and/or
supporting a higher percentage of
Homeownership units targeted to LowIncome Families (if proposing to use
CMF for Homeownership). The
Applicant will also score more favorably
to the extent that it commits to:
Financing and/or supporting Economic
Development Activities in Low-Income
Areas only (if proposing to use CMF for
Economic Developments Activities),
and financing and/or supporting a
higher percentage of units located in
Areas of Economic Distress. Areas of
Economic Distress are census tracts: (a)
Where at least 20 percent of households
that are Very Low-Income (50 percent of
AMI or below) spend more than half of
their income on housing; or (b) that are
designated Qualified Opportunity Zones
under 26 U.S.C. 1400Z–1; or (c) that are
Low-Income Housing Tax Credit
Qualified Census Tracts; or (d) where
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• Private leverage multiplier.
• Reasonableness of projected activities based on track record.
• Whether the Application is proposing to serve Alaska, North Dakota, South Carolina, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, or the U.S. Virgin Islands.
• Percent of rental housing units targeted to Very Low-Income (VLI) or below (50
percent of AMI or below).
• Percent of Homeownership units targeted to Low-Income (LI) or below (80 percent
of AMI or below).
• Relevant track record of financing and/or supporting units targeted to VLI or LI
families.
• Commitment to serve Rural Areas and track record of serving these areas.
• Commitment to only finance Economic Development Activities in Low-Income
Areas or Underserved Rural Areas (if proposing Economic Development Activities).
• Percent of housing units to be financed and/or supported in Areas of Economic
Distress.
• Capitalization.
• Operating Performance.
• Liquidity.
• Audit Results.
greater than 20 percent of households
have incomes below the poverty rate
and the rental vacancy rate is at least 10
percent; or (e) where greater than 20
percent of the households have incomes
below the poverty rate and the
homeownership vacancy rate is at least
10 percent; or (f) are Underserved Rural
Areas as defined in the CMF Interim
Rule (as amended February 8, 2016; 12
CFR part 1807). The CDFI Fund will
publish a dataset on its website
indicating which census tracts are
designated as Areas of Economic
Distress for the FY 2020 Round.
Additionally, Applicants will score
slightly more favorably in this section if
they are willing to commit to investing
10 percent or more of their CMF Award
in Rural Areas. Applicants will also
score slightly more favorably if they also
have a track record of serving Rural
Areas that support their ability to
achieve this commitment. Note that
while Affordable Housing Activities
may occur in any Rural Area, Economic
Development Activities, In Conjunction
With Affordable Housing Activities,
must implement a Concerted Strategy to
stabilize or revitalize a Low-Income
Area or Underserved Rural Area.
Within the Financial Health section,
Applicants will generally score more
favorably to the extent that their 3-year
financial data indicate, among other
things, the following: Strong
capitalization; strong operating
performance; strong liquidity; and that
the Applicant has not had any negative
findings (e.g. opinion other than
unqualified; a ‘‘going concern
paragraph;’’ repeat findings of
reportable conditions; material
weaknesses in internal control) in any of
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the three most recently completed
annual audits.
Once the quantitative score is
determined, Applicants in each of the
two categories (financing entities and
affordable housing developers/
managers) will be ranked in descending
order based on their quantitative review
score. The top 80 percent of
Applications in each category will be
forwarded to the next level of review:
External Review. The CDFI Fund
reserves the right to forward additional
Applications to the External Review
phase in order to ensure that a diversity
of geographies (including different
states as well as Metropolitan and Rural
Areas) are served by the Applicants
reviewed in the External Review phase.
The CDFI Fund also reserves the right
to forward all Applicants to the External
Review phase, regardless of the
Quantitative Assessment score, if fewer
than 150 CMF Applications are
received.
2. External Review: Applications that
advance from the Quantitative
Assessment will be separately scored by
two or more external non-Federal
reviewers who are selected based on
criteria that include: A professional
background in affordable housing or a
background in community and
economic development finance with
experience with affordable housing.
These reviewers must complete the
CDFI Fund’s conflict of interest process
and be approved by the CDFI Fund.
Reviewers will be assigned a set number
of Applications, consisting of either
financing entity Applicants or
affordable housing developer/manager
Applicants, to review. The reviewer will
provide a score for each of the
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Applications assessed in accordance
with the scoring criteria outlined in
Section V.B.2 of this NOFA and the
Application materials.
The external reviewer’s evaluation
will result in the Application being
awarded up to 100 total points by each
reviewer. These points will be
distributed across three sections:
Business and Leveraging Strategy (40
possible points), Community Impact (35
possible points), and Organizational
Capacity (25 possible points). An
Applicant’s final External Review score
will be a composite based on the
external reviewers’ evaluation and
Quantitative Assessment factors. The
majority of the score will be based on
the external reviewers’ evaluation.
(a) Business and Leveraging Strategy
(40 points): In the Business and
Leveraging Strategy section, the
Applicant will address: (i) The needs of
communities and persons in the areas it
proposes to serve with a CMF Award
and the extent to which the proposed
strategy addresses these needs; (ii) the
affordable housing, economic
development, and financing gaps
addressed by its business strategy; (iii)
the projected CMF activities and track
record; (iv) the role CMF plays in its
project financing strategy; (v) its strategy
for leveraging private capital with a
CMF Award; and (vi) its strategy for
leveraging its CMF Award at the
Enterprise-level, through reinvestments, and/or at the Project-level
(as applicable).
An Applicant will generally score
more favorably in the criteria evaluated
by the external reviewer to the extent
that it: (i) Clearly aligns its proposed
CMF Award activities and products
with the affordable housing needs and
financing gaps it identifies; (ii)
demonstrates that its strategy and
activities will result in more favorable
financing rates and terms; (iii)
demonstrates that its projected activities
are achievable based on the Applicant’s
strategy and track record; (iv) describes
a clear process for selecting projects that
have a clear need for CMF financing; (v)
has a credible pipeline of projects; (vi)
has a clear strategy for and track record
of leveraging private capital; and (vii)
has a clear strategy for and demonstrates
a track record of leveraging funds at the
Enterprise-level, through reinvestments, and/or at the Project-level
(as applicable).
(b) Community Impact (35 points): In
the Community Impact Section, the
Applicant will address: (i) The extent to
which the Applicant’s strategy is likely
to lead to the Affordable Housing and/
or Economic Development Activities
impacts referenced in the Application;
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(ii) its strategy and track record of
financing and/or supporting housing
units targeted to Low-Income Families
(for Homeownership) and to Very LowIncome Families (for rental); (iii) its
plans for financing and/or supporting
Affordable Housing in Areas of
Economic Distress; (iv) its community
engagement and partnerships; (v) if
applicable, its strategy and track record
of financing and/or supporting
Economic Development Activities and
how these activities fit within a
Concerted Strategy and will benefit the
residents of nearby Affordable Housing.
An Applicant will generally score
more favorably in the criteria evaluated
by the external reviewer to the extent
that it: (i) Demonstrates how its business
strategy will result in one or more of the
Affordable Housing and/or Economic
Development Activities impacts
identified in the Application and the
extent to which it has articulated and
quantified measurements and evidence
to support these impacts; (ii)
demonstrates a clear and compelling
strategy for financing and/or supporting
housing units targeted to Low-Income
Families (for Homeownership) and Very
Low-Income Families (for rental); (iii)
presents a strong ability and
commitment to finance and/or support
Affordable Housing in Areas of
Economic Distress; (iv) has
demonstrated community engagement
or partnerships that will enhance the
Applicant’s ability to execute its CMF
strategy, particularly working with local
and state governments to reduce
regulatory barriers to affordable
housing; and (v) if proposing Economic
Development Activities, demonstrates
how its proposed Economic
Development Activities fit within a
Concerted Strategy and will benefit the
residents of the nearby Affordable
Housing.
(c) Organizational Capacity (25
points): In the Organizational Capacity
section, the Applicant will discuss: (i)
Its management team and key staff; (ii)
the roles and responsibilities of those
staff in managing a CMF Award; (iii) its
past experience managing Federal
awards (including past CMF Awards);
and (iv) its financial health and lending
or property portfolio (as applicable).
An Applicant will generally score
more favorably in the criteria evaluated
by the external reviewer to the extent
that it demonstrates: (i) Strong
qualifications of its key personnel with
respect to their skills and experience in
identifying investments, underwriting
or developing similar projects (as
applicable), managing a portfolio of
similar activities and ensuring
compliance with program requirements;
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(ii) success in administering prior CMF
Awards, CDFI and/or other Federal
program awards; (iii) strong financial
health; and (iv) solid portfolio
performance (as applicable).
(d) Scoring Anomaly: If, in the case of
a particular Application, the reviewers’
total External Review scores vary
significantly from each other, the CDFI
Fund may, in its sole discretion, obtain
the evaluation and numeric scoring of
an additional reviewer to determine
whether the anomalous score should be
replaced with the score of the additional
reviewer.
3. Internal Review: At the conclusion
of the External Review phase, the CMF
Program Manager will then determine
the overall number of Applications that
will be initially forwarded for Internal
Review. The CMF Program Manager
may initially forward an amount up to
the highest scoring 50% of Applications
from the External Review to the Internal
Review, as long as the proportion of
financing entity Applications to
affordable housing developer/manager
Applications in the overall Application
Pool is maintained. Each group of
Applications (financing entities and
affordable housing developers/
managers) will be ranked separately
based on their External Review score.
Such Applications will be forwarded for
Internal Review in descending order of
External Review score. The forwarded
Applications will be drawn from the
financing entity and affordable housing
developer/manager groups in proportion
to each group’s representation in the
overall Application pool. For example,
if the Applicant pool is 60 percent
financing entities and 40 percent
affordable housing developers/managers
and the CMF Program Manager elects to
forward 50 Applications to the Internal
Review Phase, the highest scoring 30
Applications from the financing entity
group, and the highest scoring 20
Applications from the affordable
housing developers/managers group
would be forwarded to Internal Review.
These forwarded Applications will
constitute the highly qualified pool.
During the Internal Review, CDFI Fund
staff will prioritize the Applications in
the highly qualified pool for an Award
based on a combination of the following
criteria: (i) Final External Review score;
(ii) alignment with CMF statutory and
policy priorities; (iii) the overall quality
of the Applicant’s strategy; and (iv) the
Applicant’s organizational capacity and
financial health. The CDFI Fund will
not attempt to ensure any specific
balance of financing entities and
affordable housing developers/managers
in the final Award pool.
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In assessing the Application’s
alignment with CMF statutory and
policy priorities, CDFI Fund staff will
consider the following factors,
including, but not limited to: The
Applicant’s proposed activities in Areas
of Economic Distress; income targeting
of the portfolio of Affordable Housing
units to be financed and/or supported;
the number of Very Low-Income rental
housing units and/or Low-Income
Homeownership units to be financed
and/or supported; the amount of private
capital it will leverage relative to the
CMF Award; and the amount of new
Enterprise-Level private capital that the
Applicant will attract.
In assessing the quality of the
Applicant’s strategy, the CDFI Fund
staff will consider the following factors,
including, but not limited to: (i) The
quality of the Applicant’s strategy with
respect to how the strategy and
financing activities address identified
community needs; (ii) whether the
proposed financing activities will help
to fill the financing gaps in their market;
(iii) whether the CMF funds will
contribute to the Applicant offering
more favorable rates and terms than are
currently available in its Service Area;
(iv) whether the Applicant’s projections
are supported by its organizational track
record, as well as the quality of its
pipeline; (v) whether the proposed
deployment/redeployment schedule is
realistic, achievable and risk has been
appropriately considered; (vi) the likely
success of the strategy to leverage
private capital; (vii) whether the strategy
is adaptable to changing market
conditions; (viii) whether the
Applicant’s strategy is likely to create
identified community impacts and the
extent to which the Applicant has
articulated quantifiable measurements
and evidence to support these impacts;
(ix) the Applicant’s approach for
financing and/or supporting Affordable
Housing in Areas of Economic Distress
and meeting Affordable Housing income
targeting goals; (x) to the extent the
Applicant is proposing to undertake
Economic Development Activities, how
those activities are part of a Concerted
Strategy and will benefit residents of
affordable housing.
In assessing the Applicant’s
organizational capacity and financial
health, the CDFI Fund Staff will
consider the following factors,
including, but not limited to, the
Applicant’s: Financial position and
organizational strength; track record of
performance and compliance with
Federal awards, including all CDFI
Fund awards, if applicable; ability to
meet Federal award management
standards and file appropriate reports
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and address findings from audits,
including any Federal Single Audits;
and staff capacity. The CDFI Fund will
also review OMB-designated
repositories of government-wide
eligibility qualification and financial
integrity information, as part of the
assessment of organizational capacity.
In the case of an Applicant that has
received awards from other Federal
programs, the CDFI Fund reserves the
right to contact officials from the
appropriate Federal agency or agencies
to determine whether the Recipient is in
compliance with current or prior award
agreements, as well as to review the
results of any Federal Single Audit, and
to take such information into
consideration before making a CMF
Award.
In addition to the criteria outlined
above, the Applicant’s ability to deploy
the CMF Award in a timely manner will
be a key determinant in funding
recommendation. Deployment
considerations may include the
Applicant’s track record of activities
compared with projections, the
Applicant’s progress in committing and/
or deploying past CMF Awards, and
whether the Applicant received a FY
2020 CDFI/NACA Program award for a
similar business strategy as the
proposed use of the CMF Award. The
CDFI Fund may also consider the
number of geographies served when
determining funding recommendations.
4. Selection: Once Applications have
been internally evaluated and
preliminary award determinations have
been made, the Applications will be
forwarded to a selecting official for a
final award determination. After
preliminary award determinations are
made, the selecting official will review
the list of potential Recipients to
determine whether the Recipient pool
meets the following statutory objectives:
(a) The potential Recipients’ proposed
Service Areas collectively represent
broad geographic coverage throughout
the United States; and
(b) The potential Recipients’ proposed
activities equitably represent both
Metropolitan Areas and Rural Areas. For
the purposes of the FY 2020 CMF
Round, the term Rural Areas is defined
per 12 CFR 1282.1 (Enterprise Duty To
Serve Final Rule) as (i) A census tract
outside of a Metropolitan Statistical
Area as designated by the Office of
Management and Budget; or (ii) A
census tract in a Metropolitan Statistical
Area as designated by the Office of
Management and Budget that is outside
of the Metropolitan Statistical Area’s
Urbanized Areas, as designated by the
U.S. Department of Agriculture’s
(USDA) Rural-Urban Commuting Area
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(RUCA) Code #1, and outside of tracts
with a housing density of over 64
housing units per square mile for
USDA’s RUCA Code #2. The CDFI Fund
will publish a dataset indicating which
census tracts are designated as Rural
Areas for the FY 2020 Round on its
website.
In the event the preliminary Recipient
pool does not reflect the geographic
coverage or representation of
Metropolitan and Rural Areas present in
the overall Applicant pool, the CDFI
Fund reserves the right to modify CMF
Award amounts and/or the CMF
Recipient pool if deemed necessary to
achieve either of these statutory
objectives. For the purposes of
conducting this analysis, the CDFI Fund
will classify Applications as addressing
Rural Areas if they propose to use 20%
or more of their award in Rural Areas,
and as addressing Metropolitan Areas if
they propose to use less than 20% of
their Award in Rural Areas. In order to
evaluate the geographic coverage of the
potential CMF Recipient pool,
Applicants will be asked to designate
one of the following two Service Area
types in their Applications: Statewide or
Multi-State. These Service Area types
are further defined in the Application.
The smallest Service Area an Applicant
can request is one state; the largest
Service Area an Applicant can propose
is a 15 state Multi-State Service Area.
Applicants should indicate in the
narrative portions of their Application if
they plan to concentrate their CMF
activities in a subset (e.g. a county or a
Metropolitan Area) of their broader
Service Area. If necessary to achieve
proportional activity in Rural Areas
and/or broader geographic coverage, the
CDFI Fund may award Applications not
in the preliminary Recipient pool,
including Applications outside of the
highly qualified pool, in the order of
their Internal Review scoring ranking.
However, the CDFI Fund will not award
an Application that scores in the bottom
50 percent of the External Review score
rankings. During the selection process,
the CDFI Fund also reserves the right to
modify or place restrictions on the
Service Area requested in any
Applicant’s Application in order to
further these statutory objectives.
In cases where the selecting official’s
award determination varies significantly
from the initial CMF Award amount
recommended by the CDFI Fund staff
review, the CMF Award
recommendation will be forwarded to a
reviewing official for final
determination. The CDFI Fund, in its
sole discretion, reserves the right to
reject an Application and/or adjust CMF
Award amounts as appropriate, based
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on information obtained during the
review process.
5. Insured Depository Institution
Applicants: In the case of Applicants
that are Insured Depository Institutions
or Insured Credit Unions, the CDFI
Fund will consider safety and
soundness information from the
Appropriate Federal Banking Agency or
Appropriate State Agency, as
applicable. If the Applicant is a CDFI
Depository Institution Holding
Company, the CDFI Fund will consider
information provided by the
Appropriate Federal Banking Agency
and Appropriate State Agency about
both the CDFI Depository Institution
Holding Company and the CDFI Insured
Depository Institution that will expend
and carry out the Award. If the
Appropriate Federal Banking Agency or
Appropriate State Agency identifies
safety and soundness concerns, the
CDFI Fund will assess whether the
concerns cause or will cause the
Applicant to be incapable of
undertaking the activities for which
funding has been requested.
6. Right of Rejection: The CDFI Fund
reserves the right to reject an
Application if information (including
administrative errors) comes to the
attention of the CDFI Fund that
adversely affects an Applicant’s
eligibility for an Award, adversely
affects the CDFI Fund’s evaluation or
scoring of an Application, or indicates
fraud or mismanagement on the
Applicant’s part, including
mismanagement of another Federal
award. If the CDFI Fund determines that
any portion of the Application is
incorrect in any material respect, the
CDFI Fund reserves the right, in its sole
discretion, to reject the Application. The
CDFI Fund reserves the right to change
its eligibility and evaluation criteria and
procedures, if the CDFI Fund deems it
appropriate. If said changes materially
affect the CDFI Fund’s Award decisions,
the CDFI Fund will provide information
regarding the changes through the CDFI
Fund’s website. There is no right to
appeal the CDFI Fund’s Award
decisions. The CDFI Fund’s Award
decisions are final.
7. Anticipated Award Announcement:
The CDFI Fund anticipates making CMF
Award announcements in early 2021.
VI. Federal Award Administration
Information
A. Award Notification: Each
successful Applicant will receive
notification from the CDFI Fund stating
that its Application has been approved
for an Award. Each Applicant not
selected for an Award will receive
notification and be provided a
debriefing document in its AMIS
account.
B. Administrative and Policy
Requirements Prior to Entering into an
Assistance Agreement: The CDFI Fund
may, in its discretion and without
advance notice to the Recipient,
terminate the Award or take other
actions as it deems appropriate if, prior
to entering into an Assistance
Agreement, information (including an
administrative error) comes to the CDFI
Fund’s attention that adversely affects
the following: The Recipient’s eligibility
for an Award; the CDFI Fund’s
evaluation of the Application; the
Recipient’s compliance with any
requirement listed in the Uniform
Requirements; or indicates fraud or
mismanagement on the Recipient’s part,
including mismanagement of another
Federal award.
If the Recipient’s certification status
as a CDFI changes prior to entering into
an Assistance Agreement, the CDFI
Fund reserves the right, in its sole
discretion, to re-calculate the CMF
Award, or modify the Assistance
Agreement based on the Recipient’s
non-CDFI status.
By receiving notification of a CMF
Award, the Recipient agrees that, if the
CDFI Fund becomes aware of any
information (including an
administrative error) prior to the
Effective Date of the Assistance
Agreement that either adversely affects
the Recipient’s eligibility for an CMF
Award, or adversely affects the CDFI
Fund’s evaluation of the Recipient’s
Application, or indicates fraud or
mismanagement on the part of the
Recipient, the CDFI Fund may, in its
discretion and without advance notice
to the Recipient, rescind the notice of
award or take other actions as it deems
appropriate.
The CDFI Fund reserves the right, in
its sole discretion, to rescind an Award
if the Recipient fails to return the
Assistance Agreement, signed by an
Authorized Representative of the
Recipient, and/or provide the CDFI
Fund with any other requested
documentation, within the CDFI Fund’s
deadlines.
In addition, the CDFI Fund reserves
the right, in its sole discretion, to
terminate and rescind the Assistance
Agreement and the award made under
this NOFA for any criteria described in
Table 8:
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TABLE 8—REQUIREMENTS PRIOR TO EXECUTING AN ASSISTANCE AGREEMENT
Requirement
Criteria
Failure to meet reporting requirements ...............
• If an Applicant received a prior award or allocation under any CDFI Fund program and is
not current on the reporting requirements set forth in the previously executed assistance,
award, allocation, bond loan agreement(s), or agreement to guarantee, as of the date of the
notice of award, the CDFI Fund reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to delay entering
into an Assistance Agreement and/or to delay making a Payment of CMF Award, until said
prior Recipient or allocatee is current on the reporting requirements in the previously executed assistance, award, allocation, bond loan agreement(s), or agreement to guarantee.
• If such a prior Recipient or allocatee is unable to meet this requirement within the timeframe
set by the CDFI Fund, the CDFI Fund reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to terminate
and rescind the notice of award and the CMF Award made under this NOFA.
• Please note that automated systems employed by the CDFI Fund for receipt of reports submitted electronically typically acknowledge only a report’s receipt; such acknowledgment
does not warrant that the report received was complete, nor that it met reporting requirements. If said prior Recipient or allocatee is unable to meet this requirement within the timeframe set by the CDFI Fund, the CDFI Fund reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to terminate and rescind the notice of Award and the CMF Award made under this NOFA.
• A Recipient must be a Certified CDFI or an eligible Nonprofit Organization, as each is defined in the CMF Interim Rule and this NOFA, prior to entering into an Assistance Agreement.
Failure to maintain CDFI Certification (if applicable) or eligible Nonprofit Organization status
(if applicable).
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TABLE 8—REQUIREMENTS PRIOR TO EXECUTING AN ASSISTANCE AGREEMENT—Continued
Requirement
Criteria
Pending resolution of noncompliance .................
Default or Noncompliance status ........................
Compliance with Federal civil rights requirements.
Do Not Pay ..........................................................
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Safety and soundness ........................................
C. Assistance Agreement: Each
Applicant that is selected to receive an
award under this NOFA must enter into
an Assistance Agreement with the CDFI
Fund in order to become a Recipient
and receive Payment. Each CMF Award
under this NOFA generally will have a
period of performance that begins with
the announcement date of the Award
and continues until the end of the
period of affordability, as set forth at 12
CFR 1807.401(d) and 12 CFR 1807.402,
and as further set forth in the Assistance
Agreement.
1. The Assistance Agreement will set
forth certain required terms and
conditions of the CMF Award, which
will include, but not be limited to:
(a) The amount of the award;
(b) The approved uses of the award;
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• If, at any time prior to entering into an Assistance Agreement under this NOFA, an Applicant that is a Certified CDFI has submitted reports (or failed to submit an annual certification report as instructed by the CDFI Fund) to the CDFI Fund that demonstrate noncompliance with the requirements for certification, but the CDFI Fund has yet to make a
final determination regarding whether or not the entity is Certified, the CDFI Fund reserves
the right, in its sole discretion, to delay entering into an Assistance Agreement and/or to
delay making a Payment of CMF Award, pending full resolution, in the sole determination of
the CDFI Fund, of the noncompliance.
• If the Applicant is unable to meet this requirement, in the sole determination of the CDFI
Fund, the CDFI Fund reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to terminate and rescind the
notice of award and the CMF Award made under this NOFA.
• The CDFI Fund will delay entering into an Assistance Agreement with a Recipient that has
pending noncompliance issues with any of its previously executed CDFI Fund award(s), allocation(s), bond loan agreement(s), or agreement(s) to guarantee.
• If said prior Recipient or allocatee is unable satisfactorily resolve the compliance issues, the
CDFI Fund reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to terminate and rescind the notice of
award and the CMF Award made under this NOFA.
• If, at any time prior to entering into an Assistance Agreement, the CDFI Fund determines
that an Applicant (or an Affiliate of the Applicant) that is a prior CDFI Fund Recipient or
allocatee under any CDFI Fund program is noncompliant or found in default with any previously executed CDFI Fund award or Assistance agreement(s) and the CDFI Fund has
provided written notification that the Applicant is ineligible to apply for or receive any future
awards or allocations for a time period specified by the CDFI Fund in writing, the CDFI
Fund may, in its sole discretion, delay entering into an Assistance Agreement with Applicant
until the Recipient has cured the noncompliance by taking actions the CDFI Fund has specified in writing within such specified timeframe. If the Recipient is unable to cure the noncompliance within the specified timeframe, the CDFI Fund may modify or rescind all or a
portion of the CMF Award made under this NOFA.
• The CDFI Fund will terminate and rescind the Assistance Agreement and the CMF Award
made under this NOFA if, prior to entering into an Assistance Agreement under this NOFA,
the Recipient receives a final determination, made within the last 3 years of the publication
date of this NOFA, in any proceeding instituted against the Recipient in, by, or before any
court, governmental, or administrative body or agency, declaring that the CMF Award Recipient has violated the following laws: Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended
(42 U.S.C. 2000d); Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (29 U.S.C. 794); the Age
Discrimination Act of 1975 (42 U.S.C. 6101–6107); Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968,
as amended (42 U.S.C. 3601 et seq.); and Executive Order 13166, Improving Access to
Services for Persons with Limited English Proficiency.
• The CDFI Fund reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to rescind an award if the Recipient
is identified as an ineligible Recipient in the Do Not Pay database.
• The Do Not Pay Business Center was developed to support Federal agencies in their efforts to reduce the number of improper payments made through programs funded by the
Federal government.
• If it is determined that the Recipient is or will be incapable of meeting its CMF Award obligations, the CDFI Fund will deem the Recipient to be ineligible or require it to improve safety and soundness conditions prior to entering into an Assistance Agreement.
(c) The approved Service Area in
which the award may be used;
(d) Performance goals and measures;
(e) Reinvestment requirements for
Program Income; and
(f) Reporting requirements for all
Recipients.
2. Prior to executing the Assistance
Agreement, the CDFI Fund may, in its
discretion, allow Recipients to request
changes to the Service Area of the
Award and certain performance goals
and measures. The CDFI Fund, in its
sole determination, may approve or
reject these requested changes or
propose other modifications, including
a reduction in the Award amount. The
CDFI Fund will only approve
performance goals and measures or
Service Area changes if it determines
that such requested changes do not
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undermine the competitive process
upon which the CMF Award
determination was made. The CDFI
Fund may also, in its discretion, provide
Recipients the opportunity to add states
to their Service Area in order to serve
states not already covered in the Award
pool and to further HERA’s goal that the
CMF serve geographically diverse areas
of every state. The CDFI Fund may also,
in its discretion, provide Recipients the
opportunity to add states to its approved
Service Area in order to serve
geographies for which: (i) The President
issued a ‘‘major disaster declaration’’
and (ii) the major disaster declaration
makes such geographies eligible for both
‘‘individual and public assistance.’’ The
major disaster declaration must be made
after the publication date of this NOFA
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and prior to the execution of the
Recipient’s Assistance Agreement. In
these cases, the CDFI Fund may allow
a Recipient to exceed the maximum 15
state Service Area, if applicable. Any
modifications agreed upon prior to the
execution of the Assistance Agreement
will become a condition of the Award.
3. The Assistance Agreement shall
provide that, prior to any determination
by the CDFI Fund that a Recipient has
failed to comply substantially with the
Act, the CMF Interim Rule, or the
environmental quality regulations, the
CDFI Fund shall provide the Recipient
with reasonable notice and opportunity
for hearing. If the Recipient fails to
comply substantially with the
Assistance Agreement, the CDFI Fund
may:
(a) Require changes in the
performance goals set forth in the
Assistance Agreement;
(b) Reduce or terminate the CMF
Award; or
(c) Require repayment of any CMF
Award that has been distributed to the
Recipient.
4. The Assistance Agreement shall
also provide that, if the CDFI Fund
determines noncompliance with the
terms and conditions of the Assistance
Agreement on the part of the Recipient,
the CDFI Fund may:
(a) Bar the Recipient from reapplying
for any assistance from the CDFI Fund;
or
(b) Take such other actions as the
CDFI Fund deems appropriate or as set
forth in the Assistance Agreement.
5. In addition to entering into an
Assistance Agreement, each Applicant
selected to receive a CMF Award must
furnish to the CDFI Fund a certificate of
good standing from the jurisdiction in
which it was formed. The CDFI Fund
may, in its sole discretion, also require
the Applicant to furnish an opinion
from its legal counsel, the content of
which may be further specified in the
Assistance Agreement, and which,
among other matters, opines that:
(a) The Recipient is duly formed and
in good standing in the jurisdiction in
which it was formed and the
jurisdiction(s) in which it transacts
business;
(b) The Recipient has the authority to
enter into the Assistance Agreement and
undertake the activities that are
specified therein;
(c) The Recipient has no pending or
threatened litigation that would
materially affect its ability to enter into
and carry out the activities specified in
the Assistance Agreement;
(d) The Recipient is not in default of
its articles of incorporation or
formation, bylaws or operating
agreements, other organizational or
establishing documents, or any
agreements with the Federal
government;
(e) The CMF affordability restrictions
that are to be imposed by deed
restrictions, covenants running with the
land, or other CDFI Fund approved
mechanisms are recordable and
enforceable under the laws of the State
and locality where the Recipient will
undertake its CMF activities;
(f) The Recipient is exempt from
Federal Income taxation pursuant to the
Internal Revenue Code of 1986; and
(g) The Recipient is designated as a
nonprofit or not for profit entity under
the laws of the organization’s State of
formation.
D. Paperwork Reduction Act: Under
the Paperwork Reduction Act (44 U.S.C.
chapter 35), an agency may not conduct
or sponsor a collection of information,
and an individual is not required to
respond to a collection of information,
unless it displays a valid OMB control
number. If applicable, the CDFI Fund
may inform Applicants that they do not
need to provide certain Application
information otherwise required.
Pursuant to the Paperwork Reduction
Act, the Capital Magnet Fund
Application has been assigned the
following control number: 1559–0036.
E. Reporting: The CDFI Fund will
require each Recipient that receives a
CMF Award through this NOFA to
account for and report to the CDFI Fund
on the use of the CMF Award. This will
require Recipients to establish
administrative controls, subject to the
Uniform Administrative Requirements
and other applicable OMB guidance.
The CDFI Fund will collect information
from each such Recipient on its use of
the CMF Award annually following
Payment and more often if deemed
appropriate by the CDFI Fund in its sole
discretion. The CDFI Fund will provide
guidance to Recipients outlining the
format and content of the information
required to be provided to describe how
the funds were used.
The CDFI Fund may collect
information from each Recipient
including, but not limited to, an annual
report with the components listed in
Table 9:
TABLE 9—REPORTING REQUIREMENTS
Criteria
Description
Single Audit (if applicable) ..................................
A non-profit Recipient must complete an annual Single Audit pursuant to the Uniform Requirements (2 CFR 200.500) if it expends $750,000 or more in Federal awards in its fiscal year,
or such other dollar threshold established by OMB pursuant to 2 CFR 200.500. If a Single
Audit is required, it must be submitted electronically to the Federal Audit Clearinghouse
(FAC) (see 2 CFR subpart F—Audit Requirements in the Uniform Requirements) and optionally through AMIS.
For-profit and nonprofit Recipients must submit a Financial Statement Audit (FSA) report in
AMIS, along with the Recipient’s statement of financial condition audited or reviewed by an
independent certified public accountant.
The Recipient must submit a performance report not less than annually, which is a progress
report on the Recipient’s use of the CMF Award towards meeting its performance goals, Affordable Housing outcomes, and the Recipient’s overall performance. The CMF Performance Report covers the Announcement Date through the Investment Period for the CMF
Award and the ten-year Affordability Period for each Project. The Investment Period shall
mean the period beginning with the Effective Date of the Assistance Agreement and ending
not earlier than the fifth year anniversary of the Effective Date, or as otherwise established
in the Assistance Agreement. The Affordability Period shall mean, for each Project, the period beginning on the date when the Project is placed into service and consisting of the full
ten consecutive years thereafter, or as otherwise established in the Assistance Agreement.
If the Recipient fails to meet a performance goal or reporting requirements, it must submit an
explanation of noncompliance via AMIS.
Financial Statement Audit ...................................
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Performance Report ............................................
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32457
TABLE 9—REPORTING REQUIREMENTS—Continued
Criteria
Description
Environmental Review .........................................
The Recipient shall submit the Environmental Review Notification Report each time the Recipient identifies a new proposed CMF project for which (i) a categorical exclusion does not
apply and/or (ii) the Recipient determines that the proposed project does involve actions
that normally require an Environmental Impact Statement, as described in 12 CFR part
1815. The Environmental Review Notification Report must be submitted to the CDFI Fund
no later than one hundred eighty (180) days prior to the date that funds are Committed to a
Project.
* Personally Identifiable Information (PII) is information, which if lost, compromised, or disclosed without authorization, could result in substantial harm, embarrassment, inconvenience, or unfairness to an individual. Although Applicants are required to enter addresses of homes and other
properties in AMIS, Applicants should not include the following PII for the individuals who received the financial products or services in AMIS or
in the supporting documentation (i.e.—name of the individual, Social Security Number, driver’s license or state identification number, passport
number, Alien Registration Number, etc.). This information should be redacted from all supporting documentation (if applicable).
Each Recipient is responsible for the
timely and complete submission of the
annual reporting documents. The CDFI
Fund will use such information to
monitor each Recipient’s compliance
with the requirements set forth in the
Assistance Agreement and to assess the
impact of the CMF. The CDFI Fund
reserves the right, in its sole discretion,
to modify these reporting requirements
if it determines it to be appropriate and
necessary; however, such reporting
requirements will be modified only after
notice to Recipients.
F. Financial Management and
Accounting: The CDFI Fund will require
Recipients to maintain financial
management and accounting systems
that comply with Federal statutes,
regulations, and the terms and
conditions of the CMF Award. These
systems must be sufficient to permit the
preparation of reports required by
general and program specific terms and
conditions, including the tracing of
funds to a level of expenditures
adequate to establish that such funds
have been used in accordance with the
Federal statutes, regulations, and the
terms and conditions of the CMF
Award.
The cost principles used by
Recipients must be consistent with
Federal cost principles; must support
the accumulation of costs as required by
the principles; and must provide for
adequate documentation to support
costs charged to the CMF Award. In
addition, the CDFI Fund will require
Recipients to: Maintain effective
internal controls; comply with
applicable statutes and regulations, the
Assistance Agreement, and related
guidance; evaluate and monitor
compliance; take action when not in
compliance; and safeguard personally
identifiable information.
VII. Agency Contacts
A. Availability: The CDFI Fund will
respond to questions and provide
support concerning this NOFA and the
Application between the hours of 9:00
a.m. and 5:00 p.m. ET, starting on the
date of the publication of this NOFA
until the close of business on the third
business day preceding the Application
deadline. The CDFI Fund will not
respond to questions or provide support
concerning the Application that are
received after 5:00 p.m. ET on said date,
until after the Application deadline.
CDFI Fund IT support will be available
until 5:00 p.m. ET on date of the
Application deadline. Applications and
other information regarding the CDFI
Fund and its programs may be obtained
from the CDFI Fund’s website at https://
www.cdfifund.gov/cmf. The CDFI Fund
will post on its website responses to
questions of general applicability
regarding the CMF.
B. The CDFI Fund’s contact
information is listed in Table 10:
TABLE 10—CONTACT INFORMATION
Type of question
Preferred method
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CMF ........................................................................
CDFI Certification ....................................................
Compliance Monitoring and Evaluation ..................
Information Technology Support .............................
The preferred method of contact is to
submit a Service Request within AMIS.
For a CMF Application question, select
‘‘Capital Magnet Fund’’ for the program.
For a CDFI Certification question, select
‘‘Certification.’’ For a Compliance
question, select ‘‘Compliance &
Reporting.’’ For Information
Technology, select ‘‘Technical Issues.’’
Failure to select the appropriate
program for the Service Request could
result in delays in responding to your
question.
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Submit
Submit
Submit
Submit
a
a
a
a
Service
Service
Service
Service
Request
Request
Request
Request
in
in
in
in
AMIS
AMIS
AMIS
AMIS
.......................
.......................
.......................
.......................
C. Communication With the CDFI
Fund: The CDFI Fund will use AMIS to
communicate with Applicants and
Recipients, using the contact
information maintained in their
respective AMIS accounts. Therefore,
the Recipient and any Subsidiaries,
signatories, and Affiliates must maintain
accurate contact information (including
contact persons and Authorized
Representatives, email addresses, fax
numbers, phone numbers, and office
addresses) in its AMIS account(s). For
more information about AMIS please
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Telephone
number
(not toll free)
Email addresses
202–653–0421
202–653–0423
202–653–0423
202–653–0422
cmf@cdfi.treas.gov.
ccme@cdfi.treas.gov.
ccme@cdfi.treas.gov.
AMIS@cdfi.treas.gov.
see the Help documents posted at
https://amis.cdfifund.gov/s/Training.
D. Civil Rights and Diversity: Any
person who is eligible to receive
benefits or services from the CDFI Fund
or Recipients under any of its programs
is entitled to those benefits or services
without being subject to prohibited
discrimination. The Department of the
Treasury’s Office of Civil Rights and
Diversity enforces various Federal
statutes and regulations that prohibit
discrimination in financially assisted
and conducted programs and activities
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of the CDFI Fund. If a person believes
that s/he has been subjected to
discrimination and/or reprisal because
of membership in a protected group, s/
he may file a complaint with: Associate
Chief Human Capital Officer, Office of
Civil Rights, and Diversity, 1500
Pennsylvania Ave. NW., Washington,
DC 20220 or (202) 622–1160 (not a tollfree number).
E. Statutory and National Policy
Requirements: The CDFI Fund will
manage and administer the Federal
award in a manner so as to ensure that
Federal funding is expended and
associated programs are implemented in
full accordance with the U.S.
Constitution, Federal Law, statutory,
and public policy requirements:
including, but not limited to, those
protecting free speech, religious liberty,
public welfare, the environment, and
prohibiting discrimination.
VIII. Other Information
None.
Authority: Pub. L. 110–289. 12 U.S.C.
4701, 12 CFR part 1805, 12 CFR part 1807,
12 CFR part 1815, 12 U.S.C. 4502.
Jodie L. Harris,
Director, Community Development Financial
Institutions Fund.
[FR Doc. 2020–11580 Filed 5–28–20; 8:45 am]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY
Office of the Comptroller of the
Currency
[Docket ID OCC–2020–0021]
Minority Depository Institutions
Advisory Committee; Meeting
Office of the Comptroller of the
Currency, Department of the Treasury.
ACTION: Notice of meeting.
AGENCY:
The Office of the Comptroller
of the Currency (OCC) announces a
meeting of the Minority Depository
Institutions Advisory Committee
(MDIAC).
DATES: The OCC MDIAC will hold a
public meeting on Wednesday, June 17,
2020, via remote means beginning at
10:00 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT).
ADDRESSES: The OCC will hold the June
17, 2020 meeting of the MDIAC via
remote means.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Beverly Cole, Designated Federal Officer
and Deputy Comptroller for the
Northeastern District, (212) 790–4001,
Office of the Comptroller of the
Currency, 340 Madison Ave., Fifth
Floor, New York, New York 10173.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: By this
notice, the OCC is announcing that the
MDIAC will convene a meeting at 10:00
a.m. EDT on Wednesday, June 17, 2020,
via remote means. Agenda items will
SUMMARY:
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include current topics of interest to the
industry. The purpose of the meeting is
for the MDIAC to advise the OCC on
steps the agency may be able to take to
ensure the continued health and
viability of minority depository
institutions and other issues of concern
to minority depository institutions.
Members of the public may submit
written statements to the MDIAC by
email to: MDIAC@OCC.treas.gov.
The OCC must receive written
statements no later than 5:00 p.m. EDT
on Wednesday, June 10, 2020. Members
of the public who plan to attend the
meeting via remote means should
contact the OCC by 5:00 p.m. EDT on
Wednesday, June 10, 2020, to inform the
OCC of their desire to attend the
meeting and to obtain information about
participation via remote means.
Members of the public may contact the
OCC via email at MDIAC@OCC.treas.gov
or by telephone at (212) 790–4001.
Attendees should provide their full
name, email address, and organization,
if any. Members of the public who are
hearing impaired should call (202) 649–
5597 (TTY) no later than 5:00 p.m. EDT
on Wednesday, June 10, 2020, to arrange
auxiliary aids such as sign language
interpretation for this meeting.
Brian P. Brooks,
First Deputy Comptroller of the Currency.
[FR Doc. 2020–11575 Filed 5–28–20; 8:45 am]
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Agencies
[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 104 (Friday, May 29, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 32443-32458]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-11580]
=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY
Community Development Financial Institutions Fund
Notice of Funds Availability (NOFA) Inviting Applications for the
Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 Funding Round of the Capital Magnet Fund (CMF)
Funding Opportunities: Capital Magnet Fund; 2020 Funding Round.
Funding Opportunity Title: Notice of Funds Availability (NOFA)
inviting Applications for the fiscal year (FY) 2020 Funding Round of
the Capital Magnet Fund (CMF).
Announcement Type: Announcement of funding opportunity.
Funding Opportunity Number: CDFI-2020-CMF.
Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Number: 21.011.
Dates:
Table 1--FY 2020 Capital Magnet Fund Funding Round Critical Deadlines for Applicants
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Description Deadline Time (eastern time--ET) Submission method
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
OMB Standard Form (SF)-424 June 26, 2020................ 11:59 p.m. ET................ Electronically
Mandatory form. via Grants.gov.
Create AMIS Account (if July 2, 2020................. 11:59 p.m. ET................ Electronically
Applicant doesn't have one). via Awards
Management
Information
System (AMIS).
Last day to contact Capital July 23, 2020................ 5:00 p.m. ET................. Service Request
Magnet Fund Staff. via AMIS or CDFI
Fund Helpdesk:
202-653-0421 or
[email protected].
CMF Application and Required July 27, 2020................ 5:00 p.m. ET................. Electronically
Attachments. via AMIS.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Executive Summary: The Capital Magnet Fund (CMF) is administered by
the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund).
Through the CMF, the CDFI Fund provides financial assistance grants to
Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) and to qualified
Nonprofit Organizations that have the development or management of
affordable housing as one of their principal purposes. All awards
provided through this Notice of Funds Availability (NOFA) are subject
to funding availability.
I. Program Description
A. Authorizing Statute and Regulation: The CMF was established
through the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (HERA), which
added section 1339 to the Federal Housing Enterprises Financial Safety
and Soundness Act of 1992. For a complete understanding of the program,
the CDFI Fund encourages Applicants to review the CMF interim rule (12
CFR part 1807) as amended February 8, 2016 (the CMF Interim Rule); this
NOFA; the CDFI Fund's environmental quality regulation (12 CFR part
1815); the CMF funding application (referred to hereafter as the
``Application,'' meaning the application submitted in response to this
NOFA); and the Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles,
and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards (2 CFR part 1000), which is
the Department of the Treasury's codification of the Office of
Management and Budget (OMB) government-wide framework for grants
management at 2 CFR part 200 (Uniform Administrative Requirements or
UAR). Each capitalized term used in this NOFA, but not defined herein,
shall have the respective meanings assigned to them in the CMF Interim
Rule, the Application, or the Uniform Administrative Requirements.
Details regarding Application content requirements are found in the
Application and related materials at www.cdfifund.gov/cmf.
B. History: The CDFI Fund was established by the Riegle Community
Development Banking and Financial Institutions Act of 1994 to promote
economic revitalization and community development through investment in
and assistance to CDFIs. The CMF made its first awards in FY 2010, with
subsequent funding rounds in FYs 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019. To date,
more
[[Page 32444]]
than $564 million has been awarded under the CMF Program.
C. Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit
Requirements for Federal Awards (2 CFR Part 1000): The Uniform
Administrative Requirements codify financial, administrative,
procurement, and program management standards that Federal award-making
agencies must follow. Per the Uniform Administrative Requirements, when
evaluating award Applications, awarding agencies must evaluate the
risks to the program posed by each Applicant, and each Applicant's
merits and eligibility. These requirements are designed to ensure that
Applicants for Federal assistance receive a fair and consistent review
prior to an award decision. This review will assess items such as the
Applicant's financial stability, quality of management systems, history
of performance, and single audit findings. In addition, the Uniform
Administrative Requirements include guidance on audit requirements and
other award compliance requirements for award Recipients.
D. Priorities: The purpose of the CMF is to attract private capital
for and increase investment in the Development, Preservation,
Rehabilitation, or Purchase of Affordable Housing for primarily
Extremely Low-Income, Very Low-Income, and Low-Income Families, as well
as Economic Development Activities, which, In Conjunction With
Affordable Housing Activities, implement a Concerted Strategy to
stabilize or revitalize a Low-Income Area or Underserved Rural Area. To
pursue these objectives, the CDFI Fund has established the following
priorities for the FY 2020 Funding Round: (i) Applications where at
least 20 percent of all rental Affordable Housing units that will be
financed and/or supported with FY 2020 CMF Awards are targeted to Very
Low-Income Families and/or at least 20 percent of all Homeownership
Affordable Housing units that will be financed and/or supported with FY
2020 CMF Awards are targeted to Low-Income Families; and (ii)
Applications proposing to use the CMF Award to leverage private capital
to finance and/or support Affordable Housing Activities and Economic
Development Activities. Additionally, the CDFI Fund seeks to fund
Applications serving geographically diverse Areas of Economic Distress,
including Metropolitan Areas and Underserved Rural Areas. In
particular, the priority for geographic diversity includes funding
highly qualified Applications that serve states or territories not
included in the Service Areas of Recipients in the past two CMF rounds
(FY 2018 and FY 2019): Alaska, North Dakota, and South Carolina, as
well as American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the
U.S. Virgin Islands.
E. Funding Limitations: The CDFI Fund reserves the right to fund,
in whole or in part, any, all, or none of the Applications submitted in
response to this NOFA.
II. Federal Award Information
A. Funding Availability: The CDFI Fund plans to award up to $173.8
million in grants for the CMF FY 2020 Round under this NOFA. HERA
prohibits the CDFI Fund from obligating more than 15 percent of the
aggregate available in CMF Awards to any Applicant, its Subsidiaries
and Affiliates in the same funding round. Affiliated entities are not
allowed to apply separately under this NOFA. To provide an example of
the size of awards in past CMF rounds, the CDFI Fund notes that in the
FY 2019 CMF Round, the statutory cap was $19.6 million, but the largest
amount awarded was $7.75 million, while the average award was
approximately $3.4 million. Moreover, given administrative and
compliance responsibilities for Recipients, the CDFI Fund will not
accept Applications for the FY 2020 Round that request less than
$500,000, and will not provide awards below $500,000 to any CMF Award
Recipient for the FY 2020 CMF Round. The CDFI Fund reserves the right,
in its sole discretion, to provide a CMF Award in an amount other than
that which the Applicant requests. However, the Award amount will not
exceed the Applicant's award request as stated in its Application, nor
will the Award amount be less than the Applicant's minimum Award
request, if one is provided in the Application. An Applicant may
receive only one Award through the FY 2020 CMF Round.
B. Types of Awards: The CDFI Fund will provide CMF Awards in the
form of grants. CMF Awards must be used to support the eligible
activities as set forth in 12 CFR 1807.301. A CMF Award Recipient may
not distribute the CMF Award to any Affiliate, Subsidiary, or third-
party entity in any manner that would create a Subrecipient
relationship (as defined in the Uniform Administrative Requirements),
without the CDFI Fund's prior written consent. The Recipient of a CMF
Award must retain all obligations related to the Award. This
restriction does not prevent a Recipient from loaning or investing
directly in an Affiliate (separate legal entity) or in a specific
Project being undertaken by an Affiliate.
C. Limitations on Using CMF Awards in Conjunction With Other CDFI
Fund Awards/Allocations: 1. A CMF Award Recipient may not use its CMF
Award for any project that also receives funding from other CDFI Fund
program awards or allocations the Recipient (or any of its Affiliates)
has received, except when the CMF Award dollars are used to finance/
support a different ``phase'' of development in the same Project than
that financed by other CDFI Fund awards or allocations. The separate
phases of development financing are: (1) Predevelopment; (2)
acquisition; (3) site work (preconstruction); (4) construction/
rehabilitation; (5) permanent financing; or (6) bridge financing
between two or more phases. This restriction does not apply to the
Recipient's prior CMF Awards. The Recipient may combine its multiple
CMF Awards to provide financing on any Project, including financing the
same phase of any Project. However, the Recipient may not deem the same
costs as Eligible Project Costs under multiple CMF Awards and must
prorate the unit production performance across its multiple CMF Awards.
If providing Homeownership assistance, a CMF Award may be used in
conjunction with awards/allocations from other CDFI Fund programs only
if the Project can be divided into such phases and the CMF Award is
used in a different phase from the other CDFI Fund program awards/
allocations. To clarify, a CMF Award cannot be used for a Homeownership
property that is permanently financed (or supported) by both, the
Recipient's (or any of its Affiliates') CMF Award, and an award/
allocation from another CDFI Fund program (e.g., down payment
assistance funded from CMF Award may not be combined with a permanent
mortgage funded from another CDFI Fund program).
2. Costs financed and/or supported by the Recipient's other awards/
allocations from CDFI Fund programs, including awards from prior CMF
rounds, may not be counted or reported as Leveraged Costs for the CMF
Award pursuant to this NOFA, as further set forth in the Assistance
Agreement. While the Recipient may combine its CMF Award pursuant to
this NOFA with prior issued CMF Awards to finance/support the same
Project, each CMF Award must separately meet the program requirements
as outlined in the applicable Assistance Agreement and the CMF Interim
Rule (12 CFR part 1807). The term ``Recipient'' includes the CMF Award
Recipient and any Affiliates.
[[Page 32445]]
In all cases, the CMF Award remains subject to the following
restriction imposed by the CDFI Bond Guarantee Program: Award funds
received under any CDFI Fund program cannot be used by any participant
of the CDFI Bond Guarantee Program, including Qualified Issuers,
Eligible CDFIs, and Secondary Borrowers, to pay principal, interest,
fees, administrative costs, or issuance costs (including Bond Issuance
Fees) related to the CDFI Bond Guarantee Program, or to fund the Risk
Share Pool for a Bond Issue (all capitalized terms used in this
sentence, other than ``CMF Award,'' shall have the meanings ascribed to
them in the CDFI Bond Guarantee Program regulations and applicable
guidance).
D. Anticipated Start Date and Period of Performance: The CDFI Fund
anticipates the period of performance for the FY 2020 CMF Round to
begin in early 2021. The period of performance for each CMF Award
begins with the date that the CDFI Fund announces the Recipients of FY
2020 CMF Awards and continues until the end of the ten-year period of
affordability for all Projects financed and/or supported with the CMF
Award, as set forth at 12 CFR 1807.401(d) and 12 CFR 1807.402, and as
further set forth in the Assistance Agreement, during which time the
Recipient must meet certain Performance Goals.
E. Eligible Activities: A CMF Award must support or finance
activities that attract private capital for and increase investment in
(i) the Development, Preservation, Rehabilitation, or Purchase of
Affordable Housing for primarily Low-, Very Low- and Extremely Low-
Income Families, and (ii) Economic Development Activities. CMF Awards
may only be used as follows: (i) To provide Loan Loss Reserves, (ii) to
capitalize a Revolving Loan Fund, (iii) to capitalize an Affordable
Housing Fund, (iv) to capitalize a fund to support Economic Development
Activities, (v) for Risk-Sharing Loans, or (vi) to provide Loan
Guarantees. No more than 30 percent of a CMF Award may be used for
Economic Development Activities. For the FY 2020 CMF Round, the CDFI
Fund will allow all Recipients to use up to 5 percent of their CMF
Award for Direct Administrative Expenses. The amount available for
Direct Administrative Expenses may only be used for direct costs (as
defined by the Uniform Administrative Requirements) incurred by the
Recipient and related to the financing and/or support of a Project. The
CDFI Fund considers the tracking of impacts and outcomes associated
with Projects financed and/or supported by a CMF Award to fall under
Direct Administrative Expenses. Any portion of the amount available for
Direct Administrative Expenses may be used for direct costs related to
the effective tracking and evaluation of program or evidence-based
outcomes for Projects.
III. Eligibility Information
A. Eligible Applicants: In order to be eligible to apply for a CMF
Award, an Applicant must either be a Certified CDFI or a Nonprofit
Organization, as defined in 12 CFR 1807.104. Table 2 indicates the
criteria that each entity type must meet in order to be eligible for a
CMF Award pursuant to this NOFA. Note: A Certified CDFI that is also a
Nonprofit Organization only needs to meet the Certified CDFI
eligibility criteria described in Table 2, below, in order to be
eligible for a CMF Award.
Table 2--Applicant Eligibility Requirements
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Category Eligibility requirements
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Certified CDFI.................... Has been in existence as a
legally formed entity for at least
3 years prior to the AMIS
Application deadline under this
NOFA;
Has been determined by the
CDFI Fund to meet the CDFI
certification requirements set
forth in 12 CFR 1805.201 and as
verified in the CDFI's AMIS account
as of the publication date of this
NOFA; and
Has not been notified in
writing by the CDFI Fund that its
certification has been terminated.
In cases where the CDFI
Fund has provided a Certified CDFI
with written notification that it
no longer meets one or more
certification standards and has
been given an opportunity to cure,
the CDFI Fund will continue to
consider this Applicant to be a
Certified CDFI until it has
received a final determination
letter that its certification has
been terminated.
Has audited financial
statements encompassing its two
most recently completed fiscal
years prior to the publication date
of this NOFA.
Nonprofit Organization............ Has been in existence as a
legally formed entity for at least
3 years prior to the AMIS
Application deadline under this
NOFA;
Meets the definition of
Nonprofit Organization set forth in
12 CFR 1807.104.
Demonstrates, through
articles of incorporation, by-laws,
or other board-approved documents,
that the development or management
of affordable housing are among its
principal purposes; and
Demonstrates by providing
an attestation in the Application
that at least thirty-three and one-
third percent of its total assets
are dedicated to the development or
management of affordable housing.
Has audited financial
statements encompassing its two
most recently completed fiscal
years prior to the publication date
of this NOFA.
Do Not Pay........................ The Do Not Pay Business
Center was developed to support
Federal agencies in their efforts
to reduce the number of improper
payments made through programs
funded by the Federal government.
The CDFI Fund reserves the
right, in its sole discretion, to
rescind an award if the Recipient
is identified as an ineligible
Recipient in the Do Not Pay
database.
System for Award Management (SAM). Each Applicant must have an
active SAM registration in order to
submit the required Application
materials through Grants.gov.
SAM is a web-based,
government-wide application that
collects, validates, stores, and
disseminates business information
about the federal government's
trading partners in support of the
contract awards, grants, and
electronic payment processes. See
SAM.gov for more information.
Applicants must have a
login.gov account to sign into SAM.
Applicants must also have a DUNS
number and an EIN in order to
register in SAM.
[[Page 32446]]
Applicants must complete
registration in SAM in order to be
able to complete the Grants.gov
registration and submit an SF-424.
The CDFI Fund reserves the
right to deem an Application
ineligible if the Applicant's SAM
account expires during the
Application evaluation period, or
is set to expire before March 1,
2021, and the Applicant does not re-
activate, or renew, as applicable,
the account within the deadlines
that the CDFI Fund communicates to
affected Applicants during the
Application evaluation period.
Application type and submission Each Applicant must submit
method through Grants.gov and the required Application documents
Awards Management Information listed in Table 4.
System (AMIS). The CDFI Fund will only
accept Applications that use the
official Application templates
provided on the Grants.gov and AMIS
websites. Applications submitted
with alternative or altered
templates will not be considered.
All Applicants must submit
the required documents in two
locations: (1) Grants.gov and (2)
AMIS.
[cir] Grants.gov: Applicants must
submit the Office of Management
and Budget (OMB)-approved
Standard Form (SF) 424 Mandatory
(Application for Federal
Assistance) form.
[cir] AMIS: Applicants must
submit all other required
Application materials.
[cir] All Applicants must
register in the Grants.gov and
AMIS systems to submit an
Application successfully. The
CDFI Fund strongly encourages
Applicants to register as early
as possible to meet the
deadlines in Table 1.
[cir] Grants.gov and the SF-424
Mandatory form:
[cir] Grants.gov is a common
website for federal agencies to
post discretionary funding
opportunities and for grantees
to find and apply to them.
[cir] The SF-424 must be
submitted in Grants.gov before
the other Application materials
are submitted in AMIS.
Applicants are strongly
encouraged to submit their SF-
424 as early as possible via the
Grants.gov portal.
[cir] Because the SF-424 is part
of the Application, if the SF-
424 is not accepted by
Grants.gov, the CDFI Fund will
not review any materials
submitted in AMIS and the
Application will be deemed
ineligible.
[cir] The SF-424 must be
submitted under the FY 2020 CMF
Funding Opportunity Number.
AMIS:
[cir] AMIS is the CDFI Fund's
enterprise-wide information
technology system that will be
used to submit and store
organization and Application
information with the CDFI Fund.
[cir] Applicants are only allowed
one Capital Magnet Fund
Application submission per
funding round in AMIS.
Employer Identification Number Each Applicant must have a
(EIN). unique EIN assigned by the Internal
Revenue Service.
The CDFI Fund will reject
an Application submitted with the
EIN of a parent or Affiliate
organization if that entity is not
the Applicant.
The EIN of the Applicant
organization in AMIS must match the
EIN on the SF-424 submitted through
Grants.gov.
DUNS number....................... Pursuant to OMB guidance
(68 FR 38402), each Applicant must
apply using its unique DUNS number
in Grants.gov.
The CDFI Fund will reject
an Application submitted with the
DUNS number of a parent or
Affiliate organization.
The DUNS number of the
Applicant in AMIS must match the
DUNS number on the SF-424 submitted
through Grants.gov.
AMIS Account...................... Each Applicant must
register as an organization in AMIS
and submit all required Application
materials through the AMIS portal.
If the Applicant does not
fully register its organization in
AMIS by the deadline set forth in
Table 1, its Application will be
rejected without further
consideration.
The Authorized
Representative must be included as
a ``user'' in the Applicant's AMIS
account.
An Applicant that fails to
properly register and update its
AMIS account may miss important
communications from the CDFI Fund
or not be able to successfully
submit an Application.
501(c)(4) status.................. Pursuant to 2 U.S.C. 1611,
any 501(c)(4) organization that
engages in lobbying activities is
not eligible to apply for or
receive a CMF Award.
Compliance with Nondiscrimination An Applicant may not be
and Equal Opportunity Statutes, eligible to receive an award if
Regulations, and Executive Orders. proceedings have been instituted
against it in, by, or before any
court, governmental agency, or
administrative body, and a final
determination, issued within the
last 3 years as of the publication
date of this NOFA, indicates the
Applicant has violated any of the
following laws: Title VI of the
Civil Rights Act of 1964, as
amended (42 U.S.C. 2000d); Section
504 of the Rehabilitation Act of
1973 (29 U.S.C. 794); the Age
Discrimination Act of 1975 (42
U.S.C. 6101-6107); Title VIII of
the Civil Rights Act of 1968, as
amended (42 U.S.C. 3601 et seq.);
and Executive Order 13166,
Improving Access to Services for
Persons with Limited English
Proficiency.
Depository Institution Holding In the case where a CDFI
Company Applicant. Depository Institution Holding
Company Applicant intends to carry
out the activities of its award
through its Subsidiary CDFI Insured
Depository Institution, the
Application must be submitted by
the CDFI Depository Institution
Holding Company and reflect the
activities and financial
performance of the Subsidiary CDFI
Insured Depository Institution.
[[Page 32447]]
The Authorized
Representative of the Depository
Institution Holding Company
Applicant must certify that the
information included in the
Application represents that of the
Subsidiary CDFI Insured Depository
Institution, and that the Award
will be used to support the
Subsidiary CDFI Insured Depository
Institution for the eligible
activities outlined in the
Application.
Regulated Institutions \1\........ To be eligible for an
Award, each Regulated Institution
Applicant must have a CAMELS/CAMEL
composite rating (rating for banks
and credit unions, respectively),
by its Federal regulator of at
least ``3.''
Organizations with CAMELS/
CAMEL composite ratings of ``4'' or
``5'' will not be eligible for
awards.
Organizations with a Prompt
Corrective Action directive from
its regulator will not be eligible
for awards.
The CDFI Fund will also
evaluate material concerns
identified by the Appropriate
Federal Banking Agency in
determining eligibility of
Regulated Institution Applicants.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ Regulated Institutions include Insured Credit Unions, Insured
Depository Institutions, State-Insured Credit Unions and Depository
Institution Holding Companies.
Any Applicant that does not meet the criteria in Table 2 is
ineligible to apply for a CMF Award under this NOFA. Further, Section
III.B describes additional considerations applicable to prior
Recipients and/or allocatees under any CDFI Fund program.
B. Prior Award Recipients: Eligibility determinations in prior
funding rounds have no bearing on and do not guarantee eligibility in
this round. Prior CMF Award Recipients and prior award recipients of
other CDFI Fund programs are eligible to apply under this NOFA, except
as noted in Table 3.
Table 3--Eligibility Requirements for Applicants Which Are Prior Award/
Allocation Recipients
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Criteria Description
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pending resolution of If an Applicant (or
noncompliance. Affiliate of an Applicant) that is
a prior recipient or allocatee
under any CDFI Fund program: (i)
Has demonstrated it has been in
noncompliance with a previous
assistance agreement, award
agreement, allocation agreement,
bond loan agreement, or agreement
to guarantee and (ii) the CDFI Fund
has yet to make a final
determination as to whether the
entity is in noncompliance with or
default of its previous agreement,
the CDFI Fund will consider the
Applicant's Application under this
NOFA pending full resolution, in
the sole determination of the CDFI
Fund, of the noncompliance.
Default or Noncompliance status... The CDFI Fund will not
consider an Application submitted
by an Applicant that is a prior
CDFI Fund award recipient or
allocatee under any CDFI Fund
program if, as of the AMIS
Application deadline of this NOFA,
the CDFI Fund has made a final
determination in writing that such
Applicant (or Affiliate of such
Applicant) is in noncompliance with
or default of a previously executed
assistance agreement, award
agreement, allocation agreement,
bond loan agreement, or agreement
to guarantee.
Such entities will be
ineligible to apply for an Award
pursuant to this NOFA if the CDFI
Fund has provided written
notification that such entity is
ineligible to apply for or receive
any future CDFI Fund awards or
allocations. Such entities will be
ineligible to submit an application
for such time period as specified
by the CDFI Fund in writing.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
C. Contacting the CDFI Fund: Accordingly, Applicants that are prior
Recipients and/or allocatees under any CDFI Fund program are advised to
comply with requirements specified in an Assistance Agreement,
allocation agreement, bond loan agreement, or agreement to guarantee,
and to ensure their Affiliates are in compliance with any agreements.
All outstanding reporting and compliance questions should be directed
to the Office of Certification, Compliance Monitoring and Evaluation
help desk by AMIS Service Requests or by telephone at (202) 653-0421;
except in the case of Capital Magnet Fund reporting and compliance
questions, which should be directed to the Capital Magnet Fund help
desk by completing a Service Request through AMIS using ``Capital
Magnet Fund'' for the Service Request program. Alternatively, the
public can contact Capital Magnet Fund staff via email at
[email protected] The CDFI Fund will not respond to Applicants'
reporting, compliance, or disbursement telephone calls or email
inquiries that are received after 5:00 p.m. ET on July 23, 2020 until
after the Application deadline. The CDFI Fund will respond to technical
issues related to AMIS Accounts through 5:00 p.m. ET on July 27, 2020,
via AMIS Service Requests, or at [email protected], or by telephone
at (202) 653-0422.
D. Cost sharing or matching funds requirements: Not applicable.
E. Other Eligibility Criteria:
1. How Affiliated Entities Can Submit an Application: As part of
the Application review process, the CDFI Fund considers whether
Applicants are Affiliates, as such term is defined in 12 CFR1807.104.
If an Applicant and its Affiliate(s) wish to submit an Application,
they must do so through one of the Affiliated entities, in one
Application; an Applicant and its Affiliates may not submit separate
Applications. If Affiliates submit multiple or separate Applications,
the CDFI Fund may, at its discretion, reject all such Applications
received or select only one of the submitted Applications to deem
eligible, assuming that Application meets all other eligibility
criteria in Section III of this NOFA.
Furthermore, an Applicant that receives an award in this CMF round
may not become an Affiliate of another
[[Page 32448]]
Applicant that receives an award in this CMF round at any time after
the submission of a CMF Application under this NOFA. This requirement
will also be a term and condition of the Assistance Agreement (see
Application Frequently Asked Questions on the CDFI Fund's website at
https://www.cdfifund.gov/cmf for more details).
2. An Applicant will not be eligible to receive a CMF Award if the
Applicant fails to demonstrate in the Application that its CMF Award
would result in Eligible Project Costs (Leveraged Costs plus those
costs funded by the CMF Award) that equal at least 10 times the amount
of the CMF Award. Note that no costs attributable to Direct
Administrative Expenses may be considered Eligible Project Costs.
IV. Application and Submission Information
A. Address To Request Application Package: Application materials
can be found on the Grants.gov and the CDFI Fund's website at
www.cdfifund.gov/cmf. Applicants may request a paper version of any
Application material by contacting the CDFI Fund Help Desk by email at
[email protected] or by phone at (202) 653-0421.
B. Content and Form of Application Submission: The CDFI Fund will
post to its website, at www.cdfifund.gov/cmf, instructions for
accessing and submitting an Application. Detailed Application content
requirements are found in the Application and related guidance
documents. All Applications must be prepared in English and
calculations must be made in U.S. dollars. Table 4 lists the required
funding Application documents for the FY 2020 CMF Round. Applicants
must submit all required documents for the Application to be deemed
complete. Please be aware that an Applicant that fails to submit
audited financial statements for its two most recently completed fiscal
years will be deemed as not having a complete Application and will be
considered ineligible. The CDFI Fund reserves the right to request and
review other pertinent or public information that has not been
specifically requested in this NOFA or the Application. Information
submitted by the Applicant that the CDFI Fund has not specifically
requested will not be reviewed or considered as part of the
Application. Information submitted must accurately reflect the
Applicant's activities and/or its Subsidiary Insured Depository
Institution, in the case where the Applicant is an Insured Depository
Institution Holding Company.
Table 4--Funding Application Documents
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Application document Submission format Required?
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Standard Form (SF) 424 Mandatory Fillable PDF in Required for all
Form. Grants.gov. Applicants.
CMF Application.................. AMIS.............. Required for all
Applicants.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Attachments to the Application
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Audited financial statements PDF in AMIS....... Required for all
(most recent 2 fiscal years). Applicants.
Any management letters related to PDF in AMIS....... Required for all
the audited financial statements Applicants.
(most recent 2 fiscal years).
State Charter, Articles of PDF in AMIS....... Required only for
Incorporation, or other Applicants that
establishing documents are not
designating that the Applicant Certified CDFIs.
is a nonprofit or not-for-profit
entity under the laws of the
organization's State of
formation.
A certification demonstrating tax PDF in AMIS....... Required only for
exempt status from the IRS. For Applicants that
Applicants that are governmental are not
instrumentalities only, and as Certified CDFIs.
long as all other eligibility
requirements are met, the
Applicant must submit a legal
opinion from counsel, in form
and substance acceptable to the
CDFI Fund, opining that the
Applicant is exempt from Federal
income tax, if the Applicant
does not otherwise have such
determination in a document from
the IRS.
Articles of incorporation, by- PDF in AMIS....... Required only for
laws or other documents Applicants that
demonstrating that the Applicant are not
has a principal purpose of Certified CDFIs.
managing or developing
affordable housing.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The CDFI Fund has a sequential, two-step process that requires the
submission of Application documents in separate systems and on separate
deadlines. The SF-424 form must be submitted through Grants.gov and all
other Application documents through the AMIS portal. The CDFI Fund will
not accept Applications via email, mail, facsimile, or other forms of
communication, except in extremely rare circumstances that have been
pre-approved by the CDFI Fund. The separate Application deadlines for
the SF-424 and all other Application materials are listed in Tables 1
and 6. Only the Authorized Representative for the Organization or
Application Point of Contact designated in AMIS may submit the
Application through AMIS.
Applicants are strongly encouraged to submit the SF-424 as early as
possible through Grants.gov in order to provide sufficient time to
resolve any potential submission issues. Applicants should contact
Grants.gov directly with questions related to the registration or
submission process, as the CDFI Fund does not administer the Grants.gov
system.
The CDFI Fund strongly encourages Applicants to start the
Grants.gov registration process as soon as possible, as it may take
several weeks to complete (refer to the following link: https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/register.html). An Applicant that has
previously registered with Grants.gov must verify that its registration
is current and active. If an Applicant has not previously registered
with Grants.gov, it must first successfully register in SAM.gov, as
described in Section IV.D below.
C. Dun and Bradstreet Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS):
Pursuant to the Uniform Administrative Requirements, each Applicant
must provide as part of its Application submission a valid Dun &
Bradstreet Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) number. Any Applicant
without a DUNS number will not be able to register in SAM or register
and submit an Application in the Grants.gov system. Please allow
sufficient time for Dun & Bradstreet to respond to inquiries and/or
requests for DUNS numbers.
D. System for Award Management (SAM): Any entity applying for
Federal
[[Page 32449]]
grants or other forms of Federal financial assistance through
Grants.gov must be registered in SAM before submitting its Application
materials through that platform. When accessing SAM.gov, users will be
asked to create a login.gov user account (if they don't already have
one). Going forward, users will use their login.gov username and
password every time when logging into SAM.gov. The SAM registration
process can take four weeks or longer to complete so Applicants are
strongly encouraged to begin the registration process upon publication
of this NOFA in order to avoid potential Application submission issues.
An original, signed notarized letter identifying the authorized entity
administrator for the entity associated with the DUNS number is
required by SAM and must be mailed to the Federal Service Desk. This
requirement is applicable to new entities registering in SAM, as well
as existing entities with registrations being updated or renewed in
SAM. Applicants that have previously completed the SAM registration
process must verify that their SAM accounts are current and active.
Applicants are required to maintain a current and active SAM
account at all times during which it has an active Federal award or an
Application under consideration for an award by a Federal awarding
agency.
The CDFI Fund will not consider any Applicant that fails to
properly register or activate its SAM account and, as a result, is
unable to submit its Application by the Application deadline.
Applicants must contact SAM directly with questions related to
registration or SAM account changes, as the CDFI Fund does not maintain
this system. For more information about SAM, please visit https://www.sam.gov or call 866-606-8220.
Table 5_Grants.gov Registration Timeline Summary
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Estimated minimum
Step Agency time to complete
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Obtain a DUNS number............ Dun & Bradstreet.. One Week.*
Register in SAM.gov............. System for Award Four Weeks.*
Management (SAM).
Register in Grants.gov.......... Grants.gov........ One Week.**
------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Applicants are advised that the stated duration are estimates only and
represent minimum timeframes. Actual timeframes may take longer. The
CDFI Fund will not consider any Applicant that fails to properly
register or activate its SAM account, has not yet received a DUNS
number, and/or fails to properly register in Grants.gov.
** This estimate assumes an Applicant has a DUNS number, an EIN number,
and is already registered in SAM.gov.
E. Submission Dates and Times:
1. Submission Deadlines: Table 6 lists the deadlines for submission
of the documents related to the FY 2020 CMF Funding Round:
Table 6--FY 2020 CMF Deadlines for Applicants
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Document Deadline Time-- eastern time (ET) Submission method
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SF-424 Mandatory form............. June 26, 2020............. 11:59 p.m. ET............. Electronically via
Grants.gov.
Create AMIS Account (if the July 2, 2020.............. 11:59 p.m. ET............. Electronically via
Applicant does not already have AMIS.
one).
CMF Application and Required July 27, 2020............. 5:00 p.m. ET.............. Electronically via
Attachments. AMIS.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. Confirmation of Application Submission in Grants.gov and AMIS:
Applicants are required to submit the SF-424 Mandatory Form through the
Grants.gov system under the FY 2020 Capital Magnet Fund Funding
Opportunity Number (listed at the beginning of this NOFA). All other
required Application materials must be submitted through the AMIS
website. Application materials submitted through each system are due by
the applicable deadline listed in Table 6. Applicants must submit the
SF-424 by an earlier deadline than that of the other required
Application materials in AMIS. If a valid SF-424 is not submitted
through Grants.gov by the corresponding deadline, the Applicant will
not be able to submit the additional Application materials in AMIS, and
the Application will be deemed ineligible. Thus, Applicants are
strongly encouraged to submit the SF-424 as early as possible in the
Grants.gov portal, given that potential submission issues may impact
the ability to submit a complete Application.
(a) Grants.gov Submission Information: Each Applicant will receive
an initial email from Grants.gov immediately after submitting the SF-
424, confirming that the submission has entered the Grants.gov system.
This email will contain a tracking number for the submitted SF-424.
Within 48 hours, the Applicant will receive a second email which will
indicate if the submitted SF-424 was either successfully validated or
rejected with errors. However, Applicants should not rely on the email
notification from Grants.gov to confirm that their SF-424 was
validated. Applicants are strongly encouraged to use the tracking
number provided in the first email to closely monitor the status of
their SF-424 by checking Grants.gov directly. The Application materials
submitted in AMIS are not accepted by the CDFI Fund until Grants.gov
has validated the SF-424. In the Grants.gov Workspace function, please
note that the Application package has not been submitted if you have
not received a tracking number.
(b) AMIS Submission Information: AMIS is a web-based portal where
Applicants will directly enter their Application information and add
required attachments listed in Table 4. Each Applicant must register as
an organization in AMIS in order to submit the required Application
materials through this portal. AMIS will verify that the Applicant
provided the minimum information required to submit an Application.
Applicants are responsible for the quality and accuracy of the
information and attachments included in the Application submitted in
AMIS. The CDFI Fund strongly encourages the Applicant to allow
sufficient time to confirm the Application content, review the material
[[Page 32450]]
submitted, and remedy any issues prior to the Application deadline.
Applicants can only submit one Application in AMIS. Upon submission,
the Application will be locked and cannot be resubmitted, edited, or
modified in any way. The CDFI Fund will not unlock or allow multiple
AMIS Application submissions.
Prior to submission, each Application in AMIS must be signed by an
Authorized Representative. An Authorized Representative is an employee
or officer and has the authority to legally bind and make
representations on behalf of the Applicant; consultants working on
behalf of the Applicant cannot be designated as Authorized
Representatives. The Applicant may include consultants as Application
point(s) of contact, who will be included on any communication
regarding the Application and will be able to submit the Application
but cannot sign the Application. The Authorized Representative and/or
Application point(s) of contact must be included as ``Contacts'' in the
Applicant's AMIS account. The Authorized Representative must also be a
``user'' in AMIS. An Applicant that fails to properly register and
update its AMIS account may miss important communications from the CDFI
Fund or fail to submit an Application successfully. Only an Authorized
Representative for the organization or an Application point of contact
can submit the Application in AMIS. After submitting its Application,
the Applicant will not be permitted to revise or modify its Application
in any way or attempt to negotiate the terms of an Award.
3. Multiple Application Submissions: Applicants are only permitted
to submit one complete Application. However, the CDFI Fund does not
control Grants.gov, which does allow for multiple submissions of the
SF-424. If an Applicant submits multiple SF-424 Applications in
Grants.gov, the CDFI Fund will only review the SF-424 Application
submitted in Grants.gov that is attached to the AMIS Application.
Applicants can only submit one Application through AMIS.
4. Late Submission: The CDFI Fund will not accept an SF-424
submitted after the applicable Grants.gov or AMIS Application submitted
after the AMIS Application deadline, except where the submission delay
was a direct result of a Federal government administrative or
technological error. This exception includes any errors associated with
Grants.gov, SAM.gov, AMIS or any other applicable government system.
Please note that this exception does not apply to errors arising from
obtaining a DUNS number from Dun & Bradstreet, which is not a
government entity. An Applicant unable to make timely submission of its
Application due to any errors in the process of obtaining a DUNS number
will not be allowed to submit its Application after the Application
deadline has passed.
(a) SF-424 Late Submission: In cases where a Federal government
administrative or technological error directly resulted in the late
submission of the SF-424, the Applicant must submit a written request
for acceptance of the late SF-424 submission and include documentation
of the error no later than two business days after the SF-424 deadline.
The CDFI Fund will not respond to requests for acceptance of late SF-
424 submissions after that time period. Applicants must submit late SF-
424 submission requests to the CDFI Fund via an AMIS service request to
the CDFI Program with a subject line of ``Late SF-424 Submission
Request.''
(b) Application Late Submission: In cases where a Federal
government administrative or technological error directly resulted in a
late submission of the Application in AMIS, the Applicant must submit a
written request for acceptance of the late Application submission and
include documentation of the error no later than two business days
after the Application deadline. The CDFI Fund will not respond to
requests for acceptance of late Application submissions after that time
period. Applicants must submit late Application submission requests to
the CDFI Fund via an AMIS service request to the CDFI Program with a
subject line of ``Late Application Submission Request.''
5. Intergovernmental Review: Not Applicable.
6. Funding Restrictions: CMF Awards are limited by the following:
(a) A Recipient shall use CMF Award funds only for the eligible
activities set forth in 12 CFR 1807.301 and as described in Section
II.C and Section II.E of this NOFA and its Assistance Agreement.
(b) A Recipient may not disburse CMF Award funds to an Affiliate,
Subsidiary, or any other entity in any manner that would create a
Subrecipient relationship (as defined in the Uniform Administrative
Requirements) without the CDFI Fund's prior written approval.
(c) CMF Award dollars shall only be paid to the Recipient.
(d) The CDFI Fund, in its sole discretion, may pay CMF Awards in
amounts, or under terms and conditions, which are different from those
requested by an Applicant. However, the CDFI Fund will not grant an
Award in excess of the amount requested by the Applicant.
V. Application Review Information
A. Criteria: All complete and eligible Applications will be
reviewed in accordance with the criteria and procedures described in
the CMF Interim Rule, this NOFA, the Application guidance, and the
Uniform Administrative Requirements. As part of the review process, the
CDFI Fund reserves the right to contact the Applicant by telephone,
email, mail, or through an on-site visit for the sole purpose of
clarifying or confirming Application information at any point during
the review process. The CDFI Fund reserves the right to collect such
additional information from Applicants as it deems appropriate. If
contacted, the Applicant must respond within the time period
communicated by the CDFI Fund or its Application may be rejected. For
the sake of clarity, specific Application evaluation criteria are
described in the context of the overall Application review and
selection process described in Section V.B. below.
B. Review and Selection Process:
The CDFI Fund will evaluate each complete and eligible Application
using the multi-phase review process described in this Section. For the
first two parts of the review process, the Quantitative Assessment and
External Review, the Applications will be grouped into two categories:
(1) Financing entities and (2) affordable housing developers/managers.
Certified CDFIs will automatically be categorized as financing
entities. Nonprofit Organizations will select whether they are
primarily financing entities or affordable housing developers/managers.
The Applications of these two groups will be evaluated on the criteria
listed in this section. Where appropriate, the CDFI Fund will use
different criteria in order to evaluate the financial health, capacity,
and strategies of these distinct entity types. These differences are
noted in the following sections and the Application Instructions.
1. Quantitative Assessment: Each complete and eligible Application
will receive a numeric score based on the responses to quantitative
questions in the Application. Applications may receive a score of up to
100 points based on the following factors outlined in Table 7.
[[Page 32451]]
Table 7--Quantitative Assessment Factors
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Section Points Assessment criteria
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Business and Leveraging Strategy........................ 40 Private leverage multiplier.
Reasonableness of projected
activities based on track record.
Whether the Application is
proposing to serve Alaska, North
Dakota, South Carolina, American
Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana
Islands, or the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Community Impact........................................ 35 Percent of rental housing
units targeted to Very Low-Income
(VLI) or below (50 percent of AMI or
below).
Percent of Homeownership
units targeted to Low-Income (LI) or
below (80 percent of AMI or below).
Relevant track record of
financing and/or supporting units
targeted to VLI or LI families.
Commitment to serve Rural
Areas and track record of serving
these areas.
Commitment to only finance
Economic Development Activities in
Low-Income Areas or Underserved Rural
Areas (if proposing Economic
Development Activities).
Percent of housing units to
be financed and/or supported in Areas
of Economic Distress.
Organizational Capacity................................. 25 Capitalization.
Operating Performance.
Liquidity.
Audit Results.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Within the Business and Leveraging Strategy Section of the
Quantitative Assessment, an Applicant will generally score more
favorably to the extent it: Proposes to leverage a higher multiplier of
private capital; and has a volume of projected activities supported by
its track record. An Applicant will also score slightly more favorably
if it is proposing to serve Alaska, North Dakota, South Carolina,
American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, or the U.S. Virgin
Islands.
Within the Community Impact Section, an Applicant will generally
score more favorably to the extent that it commits to one or more of
the following: Financing and/or supporting a higher percentage of
rental housing units targeted to Very Low-Income Families (if proposing
to use CMF for rental housing), and/or financing and/or supporting a
higher percentage of Homeownership units targeted to Low-Income
Families (if proposing to use CMF for Homeownership). The Applicant
will also score more favorably to the extent that it commits to:
Financing and/or supporting Economic Development Activities in Low-
Income Areas only (if proposing to use CMF for Economic Developments
Activities), and financing and/or supporting a higher percentage of
units located in Areas of Economic Distress. Areas of Economic Distress
are census tracts: (a) Where at least 20 percent of households that are
Very Low-Income (50 percent of AMI or below) spend more than half of
their income on housing; or (b) that are designated Qualified
Opportunity Zones under 26 U.S.C. 1400Z-1; or (c) that are Low-Income
Housing Tax Credit Qualified Census Tracts; or (d) where greater than
20 percent of households have incomes below the poverty rate and the
rental vacancy rate is at least 10 percent; or (e) where greater than
20 percent of the households have incomes below the poverty rate and
the homeownership vacancy rate is at least 10 percent; or (f) are
Underserved Rural Areas as defined in the CMF Interim Rule (as amended
February 8, 2016; 12 CFR part 1807). The CDFI Fund will publish a
dataset on its website indicating which census tracts are designated as
Areas of Economic Distress for the FY 2020 Round. Additionally,
Applicants will score slightly more favorably in this section if they
are willing to commit to investing 10 percent or more of their CMF
Award in Rural Areas. Applicants will also score slightly more
favorably if they also have a track record of serving Rural Areas that
support their ability to achieve this commitment. Note that while
Affordable Housing Activities may occur in any Rural Area, Economic
Development Activities, In Conjunction With Affordable Housing
Activities, must implement a Concerted Strategy to stabilize or
revitalize a Low-Income Area or Underserved Rural Area.
Within the Financial Health section, Applicants will generally
score more favorably to the extent that their 3-year financial data
indicate, among other things, the following: Strong capitalization;
strong operating performance; strong liquidity; and that the Applicant
has not had any negative findings (e.g. opinion other than unqualified;
a ``going concern paragraph;'' repeat findings of reportable
conditions; material weaknesses in internal control) in any of the
three most recently completed annual audits.
Once the quantitative score is determined, Applicants in each of
the two categories (financing entities and affordable housing
developers/managers) will be ranked in descending order based on their
quantitative review score. The top 80 percent of Applications in each
category will be forwarded to the next level of review: External
Review. The CDFI Fund reserves the right to forward additional
Applications to the External Review phase in order to ensure that a
diversity of geographies (including different states as well as
Metropolitan and Rural Areas) are served by the Applicants reviewed in
the External Review phase. The CDFI Fund also reserves the right to
forward all Applicants to the External Review phase, regardless of the
Quantitative Assessment score, if fewer than 150 CMF Applications are
received.
2. External Review: Applications that advance from the Quantitative
Assessment will be separately scored by two or more external non-
Federal reviewers who are selected based on criteria that include: A
professional background in affordable housing or a background in
community and economic development finance with experience with
affordable housing. These reviewers must complete the CDFI Fund's
conflict of interest process and be approved by the CDFI Fund.
Reviewers will be assigned a set number of Applications, consisting of
either financing entity Applicants or affordable housing developer/
manager Applicants, to review. The reviewer will provide a score for
each of the
[[Page 32452]]
Applications assessed in accordance with the scoring criteria outlined
in Section V.B.2 of this NOFA and the Application materials.
The external reviewer's evaluation will result in the Application
being awarded up to 100 total points by each reviewer. These points
will be distributed across three sections: Business and Leveraging
Strategy (40 possible points), Community Impact (35 possible points),
and Organizational Capacity (25 possible points). An Applicant's final
External Review score will be a composite based on the external
reviewers' evaluation and Quantitative Assessment factors. The majority
of the score will be based on the external reviewers' evaluation.
(a) Business and Leveraging Strategy (40 points): In the Business
and Leveraging Strategy section, the Applicant will address: (i) The
needs of communities and persons in the areas it proposes to serve with
a CMF Award and the extent to which the proposed strategy addresses
these needs; (ii) the affordable housing, economic development, and
financing gaps addressed by its business strategy; (iii) the projected
CMF activities and track record; (iv) the role CMF plays in its project
financing strategy; (v) its strategy for leveraging private capital
with a CMF Award; and (vi) its strategy for leveraging its CMF Award at
the Enterprise-level, through re-investments, and/or at the Project-
level (as applicable).
An Applicant will generally score more favorably in the criteria
evaluated by the external reviewer to the extent that it: (i) Clearly
aligns its proposed CMF Award activities and products with the
affordable housing needs and financing gaps it identifies; (ii)
demonstrates that its strategy and activities will result in more
favorable financing rates and terms; (iii) demonstrates that its
projected activities are achievable based on the Applicant's strategy
and track record; (iv) describes a clear process for selecting projects
that have a clear need for CMF financing; (v) has a credible pipeline
of projects; (vi) has a clear strategy for and track record of
leveraging private capital; and (vii) has a clear strategy for and
demonstrates a track record of leveraging funds at the Enterprise-
level, through re-investments, and/or at the Project-level (as
applicable).
(b) Community Impact (35 points): In the Community Impact Section,
the Applicant will address: (i) The extent to which the Applicant's
strategy is likely to lead to the Affordable Housing and/or Economic
Development Activities impacts referenced in the Application; (ii) its
strategy and track record of financing and/or supporting housing units
targeted to Low-Income Families (for Homeownership) and to Very Low-
Income Families (for rental); (iii) its plans for financing and/or
supporting Affordable Housing in Areas of Economic Distress; (iv) its
community engagement and partnerships; (v) if applicable, its strategy
and track record of financing and/or supporting Economic Development
Activities and how these activities fit within a Concerted Strategy and
will benefit the residents of nearby Affordable Housing.
An Applicant will generally score more favorably in the criteria
evaluated by the external reviewer to the extent that it: (i)
Demonstrates how its business strategy will result in one or more of
the Affordable Housing and/or Economic Development Activities impacts
identified in the Application and the extent to which it has
articulated and quantified measurements and evidence to support these
impacts; (ii) demonstrates a clear and compelling strategy for
financing and/or supporting housing units targeted to Low-Income
Families (for Homeownership) and Very Low-Income Families (for rental);
(iii) presents a strong ability and commitment to finance and/or
support Affordable Housing in Areas of Economic Distress; (iv) has
demonstrated community engagement or partnerships that will enhance the
Applicant's ability to execute its CMF strategy, particularly working
with local and state governments to reduce regulatory barriers to
affordable housing; and (v) if proposing Economic Development
Activities, demonstrates how its proposed Economic Development
Activities fit within a Concerted Strategy and will benefit the
residents of the nearby Affordable Housing.
(c) Organizational Capacity (25 points): In the Organizational
Capacity section, the Applicant will discuss: (i) Its management team
and key staff; (ii) the roles and responsibilities of those staff in
managing a CMF Award; (iii) its past experience managing Federal awards
(including past CMF Awards); and (iv) its financial health and lending
or property portfolio (as applicable).
An Applicant will generally score more favorably in the criteria
evaluated by the external reviewer to the extent that it demonstrates:
(i) Strong qualifications of its key personnel with respect to their
skills and experience in identifying investments, underwriting or
developing similar projects (as applicable), managing a portfolio of
similar activities and ensuring compliance with program requirements;
(ii) success in administering prior CMF Awards, CDFI and/or other
Federal program awards; (iii) strong financial health; and (iv) solid
portfolio performance (as applicable).
(d) Scoring Anomaly: If, in the case of a particular Application,
the reviewers' total External Review scores vary significantly from
each other, the CDFI Fund may, in its sole discretion, obtain the
evaluation and numeric scoring of an additional reviewer to determine
whether the anomalous score should be replaced with the score of the
additional reviewer.
3. Internal Review: At the conclusion of the External Review phase,
the CMF Program Manager will then determine the overall number of
Applications that will be initially forwarded for Internal Review. The
CMF Program Manager may initially forward an amount up to the highest
scoring 50% of Applications from the External Review to the Internal
Review, as long as the proportion of financing entity Applications to
affordable housing developer/manager Applications in the overall
Application Pool is maintained. Each group of Applications (financing
entities and affordable housing developers/managers) will be ranked
separately based on their External Review score. Such Applications will
be forwarded for Internal Review in descending order of External Review
score. The forwarded Applications will be drawn from the financing
entity and affordable housing developer/manager groups in proportion to
each group's representation in the overall Application pool. For
example, if the Applicant pool is 60 percent financing entities and 40
percent affordable housing developers/managers and the CMF Program
Manager elects to forward 50 Applications to the Internal Review Phase,
the highest scoring 30 Applications from the financing entity group,
and the highest scoring 20 Applications from the affordable housing
developers/managers group would be forwarded to Internal Review.
These forwarded Applications will constitute the highly qualified
pool. During the Internal Review, CDFI Fund staff will prioritize the
Applications in the highly qualified pool for an Award based on a
combination of the following criteria: (i) Final External Review score;
(ii) alignment with CMF statutory and policy priorities; (iii) the
overall quality of the Applicant's strategy; and (iv) the Applicant's
organizational capacity and financial health. The CDFI Fund will not
attempt to ensure any specific balance of financing entities and
affordable housing developers/managers in the final Award pool.
[[Page 32453]]
In assessing the Application's alignment with CMF statutory and
policy priorities, CDFI Fund staff will consider the following factors,
including, but not limited to: The Applicant's proposed activities in
Areas of Economic Distress; income targeting of the portfolio of
Affordable Housing units to be financed and/or supported; the number of
Very Low-Income rental housing units and/or Low-Income Homeownership
units to be financed and/or supported; the amount of private capital it
will leverage relative to the CMF Award; and the amount of new
Enterprise-Level private capital that the Applicant will attract.
In assessing the quality of the Applicant's strategy, the CDFI Fund
staff will consider the following factors, including, but not limited
to: (i) The quality of the Applicant's strategy with respect to how the
strategy and financing activities address identified community needs;
(ii) whether the proposed financing activities will help to fill the
financing gaps in their market; (iii) whether the CMF funds will
contribute to the Applicant offering more favorable rates and terms
than are currently available in its Service Area; (iv) whether the
Applicant's projections are supported by its organizational track
record, as well as the quality of its pipeline; (v) whether the
proposed deployment/redeployment schedule is realistic, achievable and
risk has been appropriately considered; (vi) the likely success of the
strategy to leverage private capital; (vii) whether the strategy is
adaptable to changing market conditions; (viii) whether the Applicant's
strategy is likely to create identified community impacts and the
extent to which the Applicant has articulated quantifiable measurements
and evidence to support these impacts; (ix) the Applicant's approach
for financing and/or supporting Affordable Housing in Areas of Economic
Distress and meeting Affordable Housing income targeting goals; (x) to
the extent the Applicant is proposing to undertake Economic Development
Activities, how those activities are part of a Concerted Strategy and
will benefit residents of affordable housing.
In assessing the Applicant's organizational capacity and financial
health, the CDFI Fund Staff will consider the following factors,
including, but not limited to, the Applicant's: Financial position and
organizational strength; track record of performance and compliance
with Federal awards, including all CDFI Fund awards, if applicable;
ability to meet Federal award management standards and file appropriate
reports and address findings from audits, including any Federal Single
Audits; and staff capacity. The CDFI Fund will also review OMB-
designated repositories of government-wide eligibility qualification
and financial integrity information, as part of the assessment of
organizational capacity.
In the case of an Applicant that has received awards from other
Federal programs, the CDFI Fund reserves the right to contact officials
from the appropriate Federal agency or agencies to determine whether
the Recipient is in compliance with current or prior award agreements,
as well as to review the results of any Federal Single Audit, and to
take such information into consideration before making a CMF Award.
In addition to the criteria outlined above, the Applicant's ability
to deploy the CMF Award in a timely manner will be a key determinant in
funding recommendation. Deployment considerations may include the
Applicant's track record of activities compared with projections, the
Applicant's progress in committing and/or deploying past CMF Awards,
and whether the Applicant received a FY 2020 CDFI/NACA Program award
for a similar business strategy as the proposed use of the CMF Award.
The CDFI Fund may also consider the number of geographies served when
determining funding recommendations.
4. Selection: Once Applications have been internally evaluated and
preliminary award determinations have been made, the Applications will
be forwarded to a selecting official for a final award determination.
After preliminary award determinations are made, the selecting official
will review the list of potential Recipients to determine whether the
Recipient pool meets the following statutory objectives:
(a) The potential Recipients' proposed Service Areas collectively
represent broad geographic coverage throughout the United States; and
(b) The potential Recipients' proposed activities equitably
represent both Metropolitan Areas and Rural Areas. For the purposes of
the FY 2020 CMF Round, the term Rural Areas is defined per 12 CFR
1282.1 (Enterprise Duty To Serve Final Rule) as (i) A census tract
outside of a Metropolitan Statistical Area as designated by the Office
of Management and Budget; or (ii) A census tract in a Metropolitan
Statistical Area as designated by the Office of Management and Budget
that is outside of the Metropolitan Statistical Area's Urbanized Areas,
as designated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Rural-
Urban Commuting Area (RUCA) Code #1, and outside of tracts with a
housing density of over 64 housing units per square mile for USDA's
RUCA Code #2. The CDFI Fund will publish a dataset indicating which
census tracts are designated as Rural Areas for the FY 2020 Round on
its website.
In the event the preliminary Recipient pool does not reflect the
geographic coverage or representation of Metropolitan and Rural Areas
present in the overall Applicant pool, the CDFI Fund reserves the right
to modify CMF Award amounts and/or the CMF Recipient pool if deemed
necessary to achieve either of these statutory objectives. For the
purposes of conducting this analysis, the CDFI Fund will classify
Applications as addressing Rural Areas if they propose to use 20% or
more of their award in Rural Areas, and as addressing Metropolitan
Areas if they propose to use less than 20% of their Award in Rural
Areas. In order to evaluate the geographic coverage of the potential
CMF Recipient pool, Applicants will be asked to designate one of the
following two Service Area types in their Applications: Statewide or
Multi-State. These Service Area types are further defined in the
Application. The smallest Service Area an Applicant can request is one
state; the largest Service Area an Applicant can propose is a 15 state
Multi-State Service Area. Applicants should indicate in the narrative
portions of their Application if they plan to concentrate their CMF
activities in a subset (e.g. a county or a Metropolitan Area) of their
broader Service Area. If necessary to achieve proportional activity in
Rural Areas and/or broader geographic coverage, the CDFI Fund may award
Applications not in the preliminary Recipient pool, including
Applications outside of the highly qualified pool, in the order of
their Internal Review scoring ranking. However, the CDFI Fund will not
award an Application that scores in the bottom 50 percent of the
External Review score rankings. During the selection process, the CDFI
Fund also reserves the right to modify or place restrictions on the
Service Area requested in any Applicant's Application in order to
further these statutory objectives.
In cases where the selecting official's award determination varies
significantly from the initial CMF Award amount recommended by the CDFI
Fund staff review, the CMF Award recommendation will be forwarded to a
reviewing official for final determination. The CDFI Fund, in its sole
discretion, reserves the right to reject an Application and/or adjust
CMF Award amounts as appropriate, based
[[Page 32454]]
on information obtained during the review process.
5. Insured Depository Institution Applicants: In the case of
Applicants that are Insured Depository Institutions or Insured Credit
Unions, the CDFI Fund will consider safety and soundness information
from the Appropriate Federal Banking Agency or Appropriate State
Agency, as applicable. If the Applicant is a CDFI Depository
Institution Holding Company, the CDFI Fund will consider information
provided by the Appropriate Federal Banking Agency and Appropriate
State Agency about both the CDFI Depository Institution Holding Company
and the CDFI Insured Depository Institution that will expend and carry
out the Award. If the Appropriate Federal Banking Agency or Appropriate
State Agency identifies safety and soundness concerns, the CDFI Fund
will assess whether the concerns cause or will cause the Applicant to
be incapable of undertaking the activities for which funding has been
requested.
6. Right of Rejection: The CDFI Fund reserves the right to reject
an Application if information (including administrative errors) comes
to the attention of the CDFI Fund that adversely affects an Applicant's
eligibility for an Award, adversely affects the CDFI Fund's evaluation
or scoring of an Application, or indicates fraud or mismanagement on
the Applicant's part, including mismanagement of another Federal award.
If the CDFI Fund determines that any portion of the Application is
incorrect in any material respect, the CDFI Fund reserves the right, in
its sole discretion, to reject the Application. The CDFI Fund reserves
the right to change its eligibility and evaluation criteria and
procedures, if the CDFI Fund deems it appropriate. If said changes
materially affect the CDFI Fund's Award decisions, the CDFI Fund will
provide information regarding the changes through the CDFI Fund's
website. There is no right to appeal the CDFI Fund's Award decisions.
The CDFI Fund's Award decisions are final.
7. Anticipated Award Announcement: The CDFI Fund anticipates making
CMF Award announcements in early 2021.
VI. Federal Award Administration Information
A. Award Notification: Each successful Applicant will receive
notification from the CDFI Fund stating that its Application has been
approved for an Award. Each Applicant not selected for an Award will
receive notification and be provided a debriefing document in its AMIS
account.
B. Administrative and Policy Requirements Prior to Entering into an
Assistance Agreement: The CDFI Fund may, in its discretion and without
advance notice to the Recipient, terminate the Award or take other
actions as it deems appropriate if, prior to entering into an
Assistance Agreement, information (including an administrative error)
comes to the CDFI Fund's attention that adversely affects the
following: The Recipient's eligibility for an Award; the CDFI Fund's
evaluation of the Application; the Recipient's compliance with any
requirement listed in the Uniform Requirements; or indicates fraud or
mismanagement on the Recipient's part, including mismanagement of
another Federal award.
If the Recipient's certification status as a CDFI changes prior to
entering into an Assistance Agreement, the CDFI Fund reserves the
right, in its sole discretion, to re-calculate the CMF Award, or modify
the Assistance Agreement based on the Recipient's non-CDFI status.
By receiving notification of a CMF Award, the Recipient agrees
that, if the CDFI Fund becomes aware of any information (including an
administrative error) prior to the Effective Date of the Assistance
Agreement that either adversely affects the Recipient's eligibility for
an CMF Award, or adversely affects the CDFI Fund's evaluation of the
Recipient's Application, or indicates fraud or mismanagement on the
part of the Recipient, the CDFI Fund may, in its discretion and without
advance notice to the Recipient, rescind the notice of award or take
other actions as it deems appropriate.
The CDFI Fund reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to
rescind an Award if the Recipient fails to return the Assistance
Agreement, signed by an Authorized Representative of the Recipient,
and/or provide the CDFI Fund with any other requested documentation,
within the CDFI Fund's deadlines.
In addition, the CDFI Fund reserves the right, in its sole
discretion, to terminate and rescind the Assistance Agreement and the
award made under this NOFA for any criteria described in Table 8:
Table 8--Requirements Prior to Executing an Assistance Agreement
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Requirement Criteria
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Failure to meet reporting If an Applicant received a
requirements. prior award or allocation under any
CDFI Fund program and is not
current on the reporting
requirements set forth in the
previously executed assistance,
award, allocation, bond loan
agreement(s), or agreement to
guarantee, as of the date of the
notice of award, the CDFI Fund
reserves the right, in its sole
discretion, to delay entering into
an Assistance Agreement and/or to
delay making a Payment of CMF
Award, until said prior Recipient
or allocatee is current on the
reporting requirements in the
previously executed assistance,
award, allocation, bond loan
agreement(s), or agreement to
guarantee.
If such a prior Recipient
or allocatee is unable to meet this
requirement within the timeframe
set by the CDFI Fund, the CDFI Fund
reserves the right, in its sole
discretion, to terminate and
rescind the notice of award and the
CMF Award made under this NOFA.
Please note that automated
systems employed by the CDFI Fund
for receipt of reports submitted
electronically typically
acknowledge only a report's
receipt; such acknowledgment does
not warrant that the report
received was complete, nor that it
met reporting requirements. If said
prior Recipient or allocatee is
unable to meet this requirement
within the timeframe set by the
CDFI Fund, the CDFI Fund reserves
the right, in its sole discretion,
to terminate and rescind the notice
of Award and the CMF Award made
under this NOFA.
Failure to maintain CDFI A Recipient must be a
Certification (if applicable) or Certified CDFI or an eligible
eligible Nonprofit Organization Nonprofit Organization, as each is
status (if applicable). defined in the CMF Interim Rule and
this NOFA, prior to entering into
an Assistance Agreement.
[[Page 32455]]
If, at any time prior to
entering into an Assistance
Agreement under this NOFA, an
Applicant that is a Certified CDFI
has submitted reports (or failed to
submit an annual certification
report as instructed by the CDFI
Fund) to the CDFI Fund that
demonstrate noncompliance with the
requirements for certification, but
the CDFI Fund has yet to make a
final determination regarding
whether or not the entity is
Certified, the CDFI Fund reserves
the right, in its sole discretion,
to delay entering into an
Assistance Agreement and/or to
delay making a Payment of CMF
Award, pending full resolution, in
the sole determination of the CDFI
Fund, of the noncompliance.
If the Applicant is unable
to meet this requirement, in the
sole determination of the CDFI
Fund, the CDFI Fund reserves the
right, in its sole discretion, to
terminate and rescind the notice of
award and the CMF Award made under
this NOFA.
Pending resolution of The CDFI Fund will delay
noncompliance. entering into an Assistance
Agreement with a Recipient that has
pending noncompliance issues with
any of its previously executed CDFI
Fund award(s), allocation(s), bond
loan agreement(s), or agreement(s)
to guarantee.
If said prior Recipient or
allocatee is unable satisfactorily
resolve the compliance issues, the
CDFI Fund reserves the right, in
its sole discretion, to terminate
and rescind the notice of award and
the CMF Award made under this NOFA.
Default or Noncompliance status... If, at any time prior to
entering into an Assistance
Agreement, the CDFI Fund determines
that an Applicant (or an Affiliate
of the Applicant) that is a prior
CDFI Fund Recipient or allocatee
under any CDFI Fund program is
noncompliant or found in default
with any previously executed CDFI
Fund award or Assistance
agreement(s) and the CDFI Fund has
provided written notification that
the Applicant is ineligible to
apply for or receive any future
awards or allocations for a time
period specified by the CDFI Fund
in writing, the CDFI Fund may, in
its sole discretion, delay entering
into an Assistance Agreement with
Applicant until the Recipient has
cured the noncompliance by taking
actions the CDFI Fund has specified
in writing within such specified
timeframe. If the Recipient is
unable to cure the noncompliance
within the specified timeframe, the
CDFI Fund may modify or rescind all
or a portion of the CMF Award made
under this NOFA.
Compliance with Federal civil The CDFI Fund will
rights requirements. terminate and rescind the
Assistance Agreement and the CMF
Award made under this NOFA if,
prior to entering into an
Assistance Agreement under this
NOFA, the Recipient receives a
final determination, made within
the last 3 years of the publication
date of this NOFA, in any
proceeding instituted against the
Recipient in, by, or before any
court, governmental, or
administrative body or agency,
declaring that the CMF Award
Recipient has violated the
following laws: Title VI of the
Civil Rights Act of 1964, as
amended (42 U.S.C. 2000d); Section
504 of the Rehabilitation Act of
1973 (29 U.S.C. 794); the Age
Discrimination Act of 1975 (42
U.S.C. 6101-6107); Title VIII of
the Civil Rights Act of 1968, as
amended (42 U.S.C. 3601 et seq.);
and Executive Order 13166,
Improving Access to Services for
Persons with Limited English
Proficiency.
Do Not Pay........................ The CDFI Fund reserves the
right, in its sole discretion, to
rescind an award if the Recipient
is identified as an ineligible
Recipient in the Do Not Pay
database.
The Do Not Pay Business
Center was developed to support
Federal agencies in their efforts
to reduce the number of improper
payments made through programs
funded by the Federal government.
Safety and soundness.............. If it is determined that
the Recipient is or will be
incapable of meeting its CMF Award
obligations, the CDFI Fund will
deem the Recipient to be ineligible
or require it to improve safety and
soundness conditions prior to
entering into an Assistance
Agreement.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
C. Assistance Agreement: Each Applicant that is selected to receive
an award under this NOFA must enter into an Assistance Agreement with
the CDFI Fund in order to become a Recipient and receive Payment. Each
CMF Award under this NOFA generally will have a period of performance
that begins with the announcement date of the Award and continues until
the end of the period of affordability, as set forth at 12 CFR
1807.401(d) and 12 CFR 1807.402, and as further set forth in the
Assistance Agreement.
1. The Assistance Agreement will set forth certain required terms
and conditions of the CMF Award, which will include, but not be limited
to:
(a) The amount of the award;
(b) The approved uses of the award;
(c) The approved Service Area in which the award may be used;
(d) Performance goals and measures;
(e) Reinvestment requirements for Program Income; and
(f) Reporting requirements for all Recipients.
2. Prior to executing the Assistance Agreement, the CDFI Fund may,
in its discretion, allow Recipients to request changes to the Service
Area of the Award and certain performance goals and measures. The CDFI
Fund, in its sole determination, may approve or reject these requested
changes or propose other modifications, including a reduction in the
Award amount. The CDFI Fund will only approve performance goals and
measures or Service Area changes if it determines that such requested
changes do not undermine the competitive process upon which the CMF
Award determination was made. The CDFI Fund may also, in its
discretion, provide Recipients the opportunity to add states to their
Service Area in order to serve states not already covered in the Award
pool and to further HERA's goal that the CMF serve geographically
diverse areas of every state. The CDFI Fund may also, in its
discretion, provide Recipients the opportunity to add states to its
approved Service Area in order to serve geographies for which: (i) The
President issued a ``major disaster declaration'' and (ii) the major
disaster declaration makes such geographies eligible for both
``individual and public assistance.'' The major disaster declaration
must be made after the publication date of this NOFA
[[Page 32456]]
and prior to the execution of the Recipient's Assistance Agreement. In
these cases, the CDFI Fund may allow a Recipient to exceed the maximum
15 state Service Area, if applicable. Any modifications agreed upon
prior to the execution of the Assistance Agreement will become a
condition of the Award.
3. The Assistance Agreement shall provide that, prior to any
determination by the CDFI Fund that a Recipient has failed to comply
substantially with the Act, the CMF Interim Rule, or the environmental
quality regulations, the CDFI Fund shall provide the Recipient with
reasonable notice and opportunity for hearing. If the Recipient fails
to comply substantially with the Assistance Agreement, the CDFI Fund
may:
(a) Require changes in the performance goals set forth in the
Assistance Agreement;
(b) Reduce or terminate the CMF Award; or
(c) Require repayment of any CMF Award that has been distributed to
the Recipient.
4. The Assistance Agreement shall also provide that, if the CDFI
Fund determines noncompliance with the terms and conditions of the
Assistance Agreement on the part of the Recipient, the CDFI Fund may:
(a) Bar the Recipient from reapplying for any assistance from the
CDFI Fund; or
(b) Take such other actions as the CDFI Fund deems appropriate or
as set forth in the Assistance Agreement.
5. In addition to entering into an Assistance Agreement, each
Applicant selected to receive a CMF Award must furnish to the CDFI Fund
a certificate of good standing from the jurisdiction in which it was
formed. The CDFI Fund may, in its sole discretion, also require the
Applicant to furnish an opinion from its legal counsel, the content of
which may be further specified in the Assistance Agreement, and which,
among other matters, opines that:
(a) The Recipient is duly formed and in good standing in the
jurisdiction in which it was formed and the jurisdiction(s) in which it
transacts business;
(b) The Recipient has the authority to enter into the Assistance
Agreement and undertake the activities that are specified therein;
(c) The Recipient has no pending or threatened litigation that
would materially affect its ability to enter into and carry out the
activities specified in the Assistance Agreement;
(d) The Recipient is not in default of its articles of
incorporation or formation, bylaws or operating agreements, other
organizational or establishing documents, or any agreements with the
Federal government;
(e) The CMF affordability restrictions that are to be imposed by
deed restrictions, covenants running with the land, or other CDFI Fund
approved mechanisms are recordable and enforceable under the laws of
the State and locality where the Recipient will undertake its CMF
activities;
(f) The Recipient is exempt from Federal Income taxation pursuant
to the Internal Revenue Code of 1986; and
(g) The Recipient is designated as a nonprofit or not for profit
entity under the laws of the organization's State of formation.
D. Paperwork Reduction Act: Under the Paperwork Reduction Act (44
U.S.C. chapter 35), an agency may not conduct or sponsor a collection
of information, and an individual is not required to respond to a
collection of information, unless it displays a valid OMB control
number. If applicable, the CDFI Fund may inform Applicants that they do
not need to provide certain Application information otherwise required.
Pursuant to the Paperwork Reduction Act, the Capital Magnet Fund
Application has been assigned the following control number: 1559-0036.
E. Reporting: The CDFI Fund will require each Recipient that
receives a CMF Award through this NOFA to account for and report to the
CDFI Fund on the use of the CMF Award. This will require Recipients to
establish administrative controls, subject to the Uniform
Administrative Requirements and other applicable OMB guidance. The CDFI
Fund will collect information from each such Recipient on its use of
the CMF Award annually following Payment and more often if deemed
appropriate by the CDFI Fund in its sole discretion. The CDFI Fund will
provide guidance to Recipients outlining the format and content of the
information required to be provided to describe how the funds were
used.
The CDFI Fund may collect information from each Recipient
including, but not limited to, an annual report with the components
listed in Table 9:
Table 9--Reporting Requirements
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Criteria Description
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Single Audit (if applicable)...... A non-profit Recipient must complete
an annual Single Audit pursuant to
the Uniform Requirements (2 CFR
200.500) if it expends $750,000 or
more in Federal awards in its
fiscal year, or such other dollar
threshold established by OMB
pursuant to 2 CFR 200.500. If a
Single Audit is required, it must
be submitted electronically to the
Federal Audit Clearinghouse (FAC)
(see 2 CFR subpart F--Audit
Requirements in the Uniform
Requirements) and optionally
through AMIS.
Financial Statement Audit......... For-profit and nonprofit Recipients
must submit a Financial Statement
Audit (FSA) report in AMIS, along
with the Recipient's statement of
financial condition audited or
reviewed by an independent
certified public accountant.
Performance Report................ The Recipient must submit a
performance report not less than
annually, which is a progress
report on the Recipient's use of
the CMF Award towards meeting its
performance goals, Affordable
Housing outcomes, and the
Recipient's overall performance.
The CMF Performance Report covers
the Announcement Date through the
Investment Period for the CMF Award
and the ten-year Affordability
Period for each Project. The
Investment Period shall mean the
period beginning with the Effective
Date of the Assistance Agreement
and ending not earlier than the
fifth year anniversary of the
Effective Date, or as otherwise
established in the Assistance
Agreement. The Affordability Period
shall mean, for each Project, the
period beginning on the date when
the Project is placed into service
and consisting of the full ten
consecutive years thereafter, or as
otherwise established in the
Assistance Agreement.
If the Recipient fails to meet a
performance goal or reporting
requirements, it must submit an
explanation of noncompliance via
AMIS.
[[Page 32457]]
Environmental Review.............. The Recipient shall submit the
Environmental Review Notification
Report each time the Recipient
identifies a new proposed CMF
project for which (i) a categorical
exclusion does not apply and/or
(ii) the Recipient determines that
the proposed project does involve
actions that normally require an
Environmental Impact Statement, as
described in 12 CFR part 1815. The
Environmental Review Notification
Report must be submitted to the
CDFI Fund no later than one hundred
eighty (180) days prior to the date
that funds are Committed to a
Project.
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* Personally Identifiable Information (PII) is information, which if
lost, compromised, or disclosed without authorization, could result in
substantial harm, embarrassment, inconvenience, or unfairness to an
individual. Although Applicants are required to enter addresses of
homes and other properties in AMIS, Applicants should not include the
following PII for the individuals who received the financial products
or services in AMIS or in the supporting documentation (i.e.--name of
the individual, Social Security Number, driver's license or state
identification number, passport number, Alien Registration Number,
etc.). This information should be redacted from all supporting
documentation (if applicable).
Each Recipient is responsible for the timely and complete
submission of the annual reporting documents. The CDFI Fund will use
such information to monitor each Recipient's compliance with the
requirements set forth in the Assistance Agreement and to assess the
impact of the CMF. The CDFI Fund reserves the right, in its sole
discretion, to modify these reporting requirements if it determines it
to be appropriate and necessary; however, such reporting requirements
will be modified only after notice to Recipients.
F. Financial Management and Accounting: The CDFI Fund will require
Recipients to maintain financial management and accounting systems that
comply with Federal statutes, regulations, and the terms and conditions
of the CMF Award. These systems must be sufficient to permit the
preparation of reports required by general and program specific terms
and conditions, including the tracing of funds to a level of
expenditures adequate to establish that such funds have been used in
accordance with the Federal statutes, regulations, and the terms and
conditions of the CMF Award.
The cost principles used by Recipients must be consistent with
Federal cost principles; must support the accumulation of costs as
required by the principles; and must provide for adequate documentation
to support costs charged to the CMF Award. In addition, the CDFI Fund
will require Recipients to: Maintain effective internal controls;
comply with applicable statutes and regulations, the Assistance
Agreement, and related guidance; evaluate and monitor compliance; take
action when not in compliance; and safeguard personally identifiable
information.
VII. Agency Contacts
A. Availability: The CDFI Fund will respond to questions and
provide support concerning this NOFA and the Application between the
hours of 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. ET, starting on the date of the
publication of this NOFA until the close of business on the third
business day preceding the Application deadline. The CDFI Fund will not
respond to questions or provide support concerning the Application that
are received after 5:00 p.m. ET on said date, until after the
Application deadline. CDFI Fund IT support will be available until 5:00
p.m. ET on date of the Application deadline. Applications and other
information regarding the CDFI Fund and its programs may be obtained
from the CDFI Fund's website at https://www.cdfifund.gov/cmf. The CDFI
Fund will post on its website responses to questions of general
applicability regarding the CMF.
B. The CDFI Fund's contact information is listed in Table 10:
Table 10--Contact Information
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Telephone
Type of question Preferred method number (not Email addresses
toll free)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CMF................................. Submit a Service 202-653-0421 [email protected].
Request in AMIS.
CDFI Certification.................. Submit a Service 202-653-0423 [email protected].
Request in AMIS.
Compliance Monitoring and Evaluation Submit a Service 202-653-0423 [email protected].
Request in AMIS.
Information Technology Support...... Submit a Service 202-653-0422 [email protected].
Request in AMIS.
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The preferred method of contact is to submit a Service Request
within AMIS. For a CMF Application question, select ``Capital Magnet
Fund'' for the program. For a CDFI Certification question, select
``Certification.'' For a Compliance question, select ``Compliance &
Reporting.'' For Information Technology, select ``Technical Issues.''
Failure to select the appropriate program for the Service Request could
result in delays in responding to your question.
C. Communication With the CDFI Fund: The CDFI Fund will use AMIS to
communicate with Applicants and Recipients, using the contact
information maintained in their respective AMIS accounts. Therefore,
the Recipient and any Subsidiaries, signatories, and Affiliates must
maintain accurate contact information (including contact persons and
Authorized Representatives, email addresses, fax numbers, phone
numbers, and office addresses) in its AMIS account(s). For more
information about AMIS please see the Help documents posted at https://amis.cdfifund.gov/s/Training.
D. Civil Rights and Diversity: Any person who is eligible to
receive benefits or services from the CDFI Fund or Recipients under any
of its programs is entitled to those benefits or services without being
subject to prohibited discrimination. The Department of the Treasury's
Office of Civil Rights and Diversity enforces various Federal statutes
and regulations that prohibit discrimination in financially assisted
and conducted programs and activities
[[Page 32458]]
of the CDFI Fund. If a person believes that s/he has been subjected to
discrimination and/or reprisal because of membership in a protected
group, s/he may file a complaint with: Associate Chief Human Capital
Officer, Office of Civil Rights, and Diversity, 1500 Pennsylvania Ave.
NW., Washington, DC 20220 or (202) 622-1160 (not a toll-free number).
E. Statutory and National Policy Requirements: The CDFI Fund will
manage and administer the Federal award in a manner so as to ensure
that Federal funding is expended and associated programs are
implemented in full accordance with the U.S. Constitution, Federal Law,
statutory, and public policy requirements: including, but not limited
to, those protecting free speech, religious liberty, public welfare,
the environment, and prohibiting discrimination.
VIII. Other Information
None.
Authority: Pub. L. 110-289. 12 U.S.C. 4701, 12 CFR part 1805, 12
CFR part 1807, 12 CFR part 1815, 12 U.S.C. 4502.
Jodie L. Harris,
Director, Community Development Financial Institutions Fund.
[FR Doc. 2020-11580 Filed 5-28-20; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4810-70-P